


Taken

by Lenaa412



Category: Original Work
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Army, Army, Brother, Brother-Sister Relationships, Camp, English, Escape, F/M, Fiction, Fighting, Friendship, Gen, Journey, Love, Military, Plan, Romance, Sisters, Survival, Taken, Training, War, Weapons, Winter, secret
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:20:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 87,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22465558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lenaa412/pseuds/Lenaa412
Summary: ***"But it's not up to me.""And if it were?" Ellie couldn't help but notice hope in his voice."I don't bother with the 'if'-s. They steer me away from my main task."***"I don't want you doing stupid things, okay? I can take it, I grew up in this, but you haven't. I want you to walk out of here, in one piece and sane and unbroken." He pointed back the way they came, but she understood what he meant."I'm not sure that's possible."He put his hand up to disagree, but no words came out of his mouth, so he just sighed, deep inside him admitting that she was right. There was no way out of here for her - and maybe for him - unbroken.***They kidnapped Ellie's brother.Along with thousands of people.But Ellie has had enough after they kill her aunt and her only family member left for her, who also prevented her from going after him.But nothing stands in her way now, and she will find her brother!She sets off, alone at first, and meets her companions, unexpectedly, and they promise to escort her until they can.What will she have to endure on her journey?Will she find her brother?What will she find out?Will she survive?
Kudos: 1





	1. PROLOGUE

They realised the world was about to get to its end, in a sense, when people started to disappear.

They started to be taken.

_Kidnapped._

And Ellie’s brother was one of them.

At first, the people were searching for a pattern, for something in common between the people that got kidnapped. But they seemed to be completely random. One morning, it would be the neighbour’s husband, in the afternoon, some high person’s daughter. The next day somebody’s brother and their mother.

The only thing they could untangle from this was that two people were taken per day. Always. But when they came for her brother, that was it; she had enough!


	2. Part I – Journey

_This is just the beginning._


	3. ONE

Today did not differ from any other day for the Ashton’s. 

They got up in the morning, Ellie’s mum made breakfast. With a kiss on her head and a pat on the shoulder from her dad, Ellie went to school and suffered through the pain of having to deal with her classmates and her teachers trying to teach those who don’t want to learn; then came home. Ellie did her homework happily as it was from a subject she enjoyed, ate her dinner in the evening, then went to shower and to sleep. 

But for some reason, she picked up on something from her parents throughout the afternoon. They seemed ... troubled. When Ellie asked why, and what was wrong, they looked at her with a sad expression. 

They looked at each other at first, then Ellie’s mum squatted down to be at her level and said, “We’re not sure, honey.” 

“But it’s nothing for you to worry about,” her dad added. “Go back to sleep, darling.” 

But Ellie couldn’t sleep. She went to bed when her dad asked her, but she couldn’t fall asleep. Ellie heard her parents’ faint voices through the walls as they talked downstairs, and she decided since she couldn’t sleep, she might as well do something to keep her busy. Ellie sat at the turn on the stairs and listened to her parents’ chat about everyday things. 

“We ran out of milk and were not going to have enough for the morning,” she heard her mum sigh. She added that she planned to go to the shops in the morning. 

There was a sudden knock on the door which made Ellie jump and almost put her foot on the creaking stair but stopped. Ellie saw her dad turn to look at the clock on the wall behind him and murmured something about the person who was standing at the door. Still, he stood, and Ellie climbed a couple of steps up to not be seen by him and the person at the door. 

Some men in white clothes walked into their house and would have come upstairs if Ellie’s dad wouldn’t have stepped in front of them, his arm extended, his hand nearly on the other man’s chest, to stop them. Ellie climbed up another few steps, now only seeing her parents’ torso and the White Men’s booted feet.

The man removed Ellie’s dad’s hand, violently, and pulled out a gun. He said something Ellie did not understand, then he asked – ordered – Ellie’s dad to step aside, and when he didn’t move, and Ellie’s mum joined him in his protest, that was when it started. 

Ellie saw everything that happened after as she was hiding almost on the top of the stairs, peeking out between the rails, watching her parents get beaten up. At the same time, her deaf, baby brother, Jason, was asleep in his crib upstairs. 

But Ellie couldn’t watch for long, and sneaking upstairs, remembering to go around the creaking parts of the floor because she knew they’d hear that downstairs, Ellie went into her brother’s room. She got the baby hammock out, the one that you put on yourself, and you put the baby in it and can carry them around in it. Though it was big for a ten-year-old girl, Ellie fastened it so that Jason wouldn’t fall out. She then gathered Jason up from the crib and put him in the hammock and turning, she opened the window. 

The howling wind blew in through the open window, making the white curtains blow into Ellie’s face, and making her shiver since she was only wearing her pink and white cotton pyjamas and her bare feet in her fluffy slippers. Ellie looked to the side and grabbed a blanket from Jason’s dresser. She tried her best to cover him, shield him from the cold as well as from peeking eyes. 

Ellie heard shouting from downstairs, but then it was cut off too suddenly. She realised it was time for her to go. Ellie put her feet over the windowsill and then the other. Sitting, she looked at the ground below her and taking a deep breath and covering her mouth with one hand while holding Jason with the other, she jumped. 

It wasn’t a big jump, she only landed on the roof of the extension, but it was scary for Ellie. She lifted the blanket to check Jason, but, unbelievably, he was still asleep. She kicked her slippers off and standing on her tiptoes, Ellie closed the window as much as she could to make it seem like she never opened it. She knew they would notice it, and they would realise they escaped. 

Ellie knew there was a pipe going down along the side of the building that she could use to get down. She only imagined doing this since she was never actually allowed. Now that she needed to do it, she was afraid. 

Sitting on the edge, she hooked her feet around the pipe and started lowering herself down until she grabbed it with her shaking hands in the last moment before they fell. She inched down slowly but steadily, gripping the cold pipe. Ellie saw through her hair in her face that she couldn’t brush away right now, that the lights here weren’t turned on in the extension, as it was momentarily an extra empty room. 

She felt Jason fidget under the blanket, and looking down, she saw they were almost down. Praying that he doesn’t wake up, she started shushing him, but it was more to calm herself down than Jason. 

When she landed, rechecking Jason – still sleeping – she knew there was only one place they could have headed now, where she knew they would be safe; at their aunt’s, Jane’s house. The White Men have already searched her home, and it was unlikely that they will do it again. 

Sneaking around to the side of the house, to the gate leading out of the garden, she looked out around the corner to see if there were any more White Men outside. Lucky for her, there wasn’t. Jane didn’t live far from them and running, Ellie was there in ten minutes. 

***

This all happened ten years ago, but they are _still_ taking children. At first, they seemed to be kidnapping random people of all ages, gender, races ... but as time went by, they started focusing more on children. Especially the twelve to twenty-year-olds. Then they changed that to ten to eighteen, and to this day you can only see little boys and girls get taken more than eighteen-year-olds, but it does happen. 

After a few times it happened, they started to notice a pattern, which was that the White Men came around every two weeks to take two people.

After months, even years have gone by, it was like no one seemed to be doing anything about it. The reporters and the reports on news channels and sites were shut down very early – they only lasted the first year, reporting _everything_. After the first year, whoever was in charge of no news of this getting out was thorough because no one could find any social media posts, flyers, there were no protests and the people who persisted also disappeared.

After the third year, all social media platforms – or rather all apart from the ones that were used for messaging only – were also shut down. Ellie knew all this from her aunt. She was still too young to have an account on any of the platforms, and when she _was_ old enough, there were none left to sign up to.

The programmes the Tv aired and the content on the radio were censored and “everything went back to normal.” Only it wasn’t “normal.”

Jason was taken when they least expected it: while he went to throw something into the bin which was just a few metres away from Ellie and their aunt, Jane. 

When Ellie heard strange noises and turned around, she saw two men grabbing Jason and dragging him to the white van parked on the curb seemingly hastily. Jason was shrieking as he could, while Jane and Ellie ran to them, ran to get him back, but the White Men held out their tasers, a long stick which had an electric current through it, so strong, it sent you sleeping for hours. 

Feeling unable to help Jason right now, they just stood there, forced to watch him being taken away. Comically, right after this event, _all_ the children from ten to eighteen were taken from every town and city. Only a few lucky ones remained, those who were hidden by their parents somehow, but well, and didn’t get discovered. Still, these families had to flee afterwards not to get caught. But the success rate of that is a whole other story. 

They did see some of these events happen when a mother and her daughter successfully hid from these men. Later they saw them creep out of their homes with backpacks and headed for their car, only to be spotted by a man from above in one of the houses. He called it in right away, of course, and the child was taken, and the mother killed right on the spot. Ellie witnessed this with her own eyes two years ago. 

The amount of luck she had that day that she didn’t get caught was still unbelievable since Ellie was only hiding behind a trash can and being eighteen at the time, she was optional for the kidnapping. 

But Ellie still couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that they only _fought_ the adults, they didn’t _kidnap_ them as they did with the ten to eighteen-year-olds. 

What could they be using the kids for?

But Ellie was determined to find Jason, and after Jane attacked a White Man who was on patrol near their house and demanded that he told her where Jason was. She was shot to death, which Ellie has witnessed. Again. 

After that, Ellie didn’t have a choice but to go search for her brother alone. 

***

As fast as she could, Ellie ran home after that event before the White Men decided that she would be next. They dragged Jane’s body away like they did with everyone’s after they had _murdered_ them for as little as speaking up. 

Ellie fiddled with the keys as she seemingly couldn’t get them out of her pocket in her haste. When she did, Ellie managed to drop them, and as she leaned down to pick them up, she scanned the surroundings, checking if there were any White Men around. 

Luckily there was none. 

Ellie finally got into the apartment, and she may or may not have closed the door with a bit more force than she wanted to and shutting her eyes, Ellie listened to the banging, echoing down the empty hallway. She sighed and locked the door behind her and headed for the dirty white stairs that were still wet from the apartment keeper washing them. 

_“She really should put the yellow sign out,”_ Ellie thought as she was holding onto the railing to keep her balance while walking up to the fifth floor. 

There, since she had her keys in her hand, she only struggled with turning it in the lock, but that was a regular scenario. The lock has always needed a little nudge. Jane kept promising she’ll fix it, or call someone to fix it, but now she’ll never get around to do it ... 

Ellie closed the door to their home, quieter this time, not to disturb the elderly couple living opposite, who – even though they are about a hundred years old – can still hear like bats. They pick up on the slightest noise and knock over on the wall so hard that it threatens to crumble. 

Ellie slid down along the door after she locked it – it worked smoother from the inside for some reason than from the outside – and buried her face in her hands as she pulled her legs up to her chest. Ellie didn’t care how loud she was if the whole apartment heard her wailing, but she needed to let it out. Ellie had just lost her last family member, and right now, everything seemed hopeless for her. It was like she was in an endless hole, in a black space with no way out, no light to follow, no one to turn to. 

Ellie heard the continuous knock on the wall, as her neighbours found her grieving too loud. Wiping her face with her sleeve, Ellie stood up and not bothering to take her shoes off, she went to her brother’s room. 

Jason was never into anything for too long, and that meant that if he had a poster of a band or a famous person, or maybe an unfinished DIY something he started but never finished if he wasn’t into it anymore, he threw it out. So, his room consisted of a white dresser, an old, wooden-framed bed and a desk with his books and his football-shaped table lamp – that was the only thing Jane didn’t let him throw away. The neatly stacked books called the tears out in Ellie’s eyes as she remembered, Jason was the neat one in the family. Even his chair was tucked in and positioned in the middle perfectly. 

The only thing on his wall was a picture of them; their mum and dad and Jason and Ellie. It was taken on Jason’s birthday when he turned one year old. Jane took the picture. All of them were looking at him, smiling, and even though the only light on the otherwise dark picture came the candles on the left side of it, it was just enough to show their happy faces. It was also taken a few months before everything started going downhill. 

Ellie turned away from the picture, unable to handle the stream of emotions, suddenly rushing down at her and went into her room and dragged her sports backpack out from the bottom drawer of her dresser. She still had the idea of going after Jason rooted in her mind, since the day he has been taken. It was Jane who kept stopping her, creating nonsense reasons why Ellie shouldn’t and couldn’t go, but Ellie knew that Jane just didn’t want her to leave her, didn’t want Ellie to end up like her parents. Even though Jane never said these words, Ellie could always read it off her face when they – she – brought the topic up. But now Ellie didn’t have anything and anyone keeping her behind. 

She did have a job that could have, once. Still, she only didn’t have one now because the owner sent everybody home after both his sons were taken, and he and his wife decided to leave because they couldn’t bear to stay. Ellie sort of understood him, but at the same time, she thought it was foolish of him to flee. 

When Ellie mentioned this to Jane, she asked her, 

“Why? What you want to do is not the same?” 

And it got her thinking, and she said, “No. Because I’m not escaping a memory. I’m trying to bring it back.” 

And it was true. 

The reason Ellie kept bringing the subject up to Jane was that she couldn’t live with the fact that Jason has been taken to who-knows-where. If Ellie doesn’t do anything about it, she couldn’t live with herself for the rest of her life, knowing she didn’t do anything to help her brother. And if they were to ever see each other again, but not by Ellie rescuing him, what would she tell him? That “she gave up?” That “she didn’t care?” No! Because it wasn’t true! 

That is why, right now, Ellie was packing her clothes and essentials into her bag. Clothes just for a week, essentials like toiletries in the little travel bottles then into smaller bags, Jane’s little first-aid kit from the kitchen that was still full because she never had to use it, ropes, bottles of water, and food – mostly the non-perishables but some perishables for the day and the next one. Of course, what she couldn’t take with her like the bottles of milk she planned to give away to the nearby food bank for those in need. 

When she packed everything, she thought she’d need and double-checked everything, Ellie stopped to think. _What would happen to the apartment?_ She decided to take the keys with her just in case she came back. She didn’t plan on it, but you never know. 

Ellie collected the food in freezer-bags, sealed it and put it in a bag by her backpack by the door. She went back to her room and changed into some comfortable clothes that were suitable for the road. Luckily, she had a pair of somewhat new boots that she deemed perfect. Putting her coat on, Ellie grabbed the keys and just before she wanted to step out, she remembered to shut everything off. 

These apartments were old but refurbished, and they still had these switches in awkward places that could shut the water, gas, electricity, heating and all that, off. It’s good if you are going on a lengthier holiday, for example, like the one Ellie’s planning now. It would make sure that no flooding and fire would happen while she’s away, and since Jane was paying it as they used it, and since they won’t be using it now, the bills would go down and not take that much from her account. 

_Money!_ That’s what Ellie forgot to pack. 

Ellie grabbed her purse from under her bed as she found it after a few minutes of searching for it. She hasn’t used it for a while now because Jane always gave her money if she needed it to run down to the shops, for example. 

Checking, she noticed her card hadn’t expired yet, she still had a few months before that. She contemplated whether to take out everything she had or just a couple hundred. She decided by the second one, as there might be a chance of people thinking of stealing her – packed but still lightweight – bag, and she’d rather lose a couple hundred, than a few thousand ... 

So, after she looked around and checked everything once again, she unlocked the door, grabbed her bags and put them on the mat. Ellie looked back one last time, then pulled the door shut and with the minimal noise, and she locked it once again. She pocketed the keys, put her backpack on and grabbed the bag of food. 

She dropped it off at the local food bank and shelter. There seemed to be more and more people losing their homes every day as people leave town, and people fire people. Most can’t afford to go away for their reasons, but Ellie is not one of them. 

“Hey, Gloria!” Ellie greeted the woman at the counter, who was organising this whole thing. 

“Ellie! Long time, no see.” The woman glanced down to the bag in Ellie’s hand. “Going somewhere?” 

Handing her the bag, Ellie said, “For a little while, yes.” 

“Hmm. A ‘little while.’ Want me to check in on your place from time to time?”

Ellie smiled. “No, it’s okay, but thanks.” Ellie paused. “How are things here?” 

“Better. This year, we managed to place around a hundred people into houses all around.” 

“That’s great, Gloria, I’m happy for you; and for them.” 

“Well, I won’t hold you up any longer. You go where you need to go.” Gloria smiled. 

“Thank you, Gloria. Take care!” 

“You too, Ellie, Bye!”

Ellie didn’t know where she was headed, she only knew that they always took the people _out_ of the cities and towns, so that was her first task: to get out of here. 


	4. TWO

Ellie has been wandering around between the towns for a couple of days now, only stopping to sleep from sunset to sunrise and to stock up if she needed. People had started to disappear, move away when they realised what was going on, and did it while they had the chance; there were a few completely empty towns now because of this.

But now that she was thinking about it, she realised this all started ten years ago.

Since it all started, the people still have no or just a little idea of what the White Men do with the children and where and why. Whenever people wanted to follow them with gadgets or just themselves, they all found the same thing: that the van had just _disappeared_. The only way to know the “where”, “what” and “why” was to ask a person who spent time there and survived while escaping. But they were all broken people.

This made them all wonder if they should be digging into the persons’ past or maybe not ...

One day Ellie was at another ghost town when she saw a little pile of something. This was a week after she had left her aunt’s apartment, and she was running low on, well, everything. At first, Ellie thought it was a pile of bodies, but it seemed too small for that. Then she thought it was dung, but it was too tall for that. As she went closer, Ellie saw it was a pile of _supplies_. Sleeping bags, canisters, food, bottles, water, ropes, blankets, backpacks ... Ellie looked around to see if it belonged to somebody, but she saw no one nearby.

Ellie saw a few shops with broken windows, and their walls tagged. Dirt and waste covered the ground and the walls, from whomever, she did _not_ want to know. The houses were in the same shape as the shops; tattered. Ellie didn’t think anybody lived here, and if they did, they were practically at the mercy of the elements, given there were almost no roofs on the once-houses maybe due to a bigger fight between the White Men and the people resisting them. It happened. It was rare, but it happened that they fired at the houses.

Ellie reached for one of the bottles of water. She put it in her bag, then as she saw the food she had left – a few tin cans of soup and a yellow apple –, she reached for the sack of food when she heard the too familiar sound of a gun cocking behind her, and she stopped. Heavy steps came around her from behind, then the silhouette of a man in his forties was standing in front of her, his back to the rising sun giving him a yellow outline.

“Put everything that you took back!” he commanded, and Ellie put the sack of food back down where it was and took her backpack off. He nudged the gun towards Ellie in the air, thinking she wanted to disobey his command, as she unzipped her bag and took the water bottle out, and even showed it to him that she had nothing else in there that wasn’t hers. He poked it with his gun and his other hand, then lowered the pistol.

“I didn’t know it belonged to somebody. I didn’t see you around,” Ellie explained as she put her backpack back on.

“I was in the shop, saving everything worth saving.” He pointed behind him with the gun, referring to the tagged shop with the broken display window. Ellie wasn’t very comfortable with his finger still being on the trigger, poised to pull it.

“May I just have the bottle at least?” Ellie asked, desperate. “You have plenty for yourself, but I only have this.” She pointed to the half-a-litre flask on the side of her backpack.

“No!” he barked. “I need this for the road. Now get going!” He pointed to his left, to where the road continued leading on out the town.

“Where are you going?” Ellie asked the man, buying herself time and seeing if she can somehow bargain a few things off him. If she really needed to, Ellie could have used the money she still had, to pay him off, but wanted it to be the very last thing she does.

“North,” he muttered as he was gathering what he needed into one of the backpacks. “To Hayick. To the camps.”

Ellie didn’t understand. “The camps?”

“For refugees,” he explained, annoyed. “Up north they don’t have this _problem_ ,” he emphasised the word. “They never did. They have been doing this since it started, setting up camps for those who can escape from here. The whole thing has only affected me now, and it made me leave and head there,” he explained.

Ellie nodded, understanding his situation entirely. “Well, I’m after my brother. He is ten, and he was taken.”

He laughed as a response.

_He laughed._

“What’s so funny?” Ellie asked, starting to see red, and considering grabbing his gun and pointing it at him. How _dare_ he laugh? Has he no heart?

“Well, just the fact that _no one_ knows where they take the children since this whole damn thing has started!” He laughed some more while he was packing. “Good luck finding it _now_!”

“Then at least let me go with you to the camps,” Ellie pleaded, trying to calm herself down after he humiliated her by laughing at her rescue idea.

He looked up, surprised. He straightened up and turned to Ellie. “Now, _why_ would I do that?”

“Company?” she said – asked –, smiling and unsure.

“Do I look like someone who needs company?” he asked rhetorically and sceptically.

“I think you look like someone who also just lost somebody and even though they don’t admit it, the feeling of someone being there with them is calming,” Ellie said finally with a tilted head.

“Fine.” He growled after a few seconds of thinking it over. “Good thing as I don’t have to carry all this myself. Hah! Pack up, Annie!”

“Ellie,” she corrected though she knew he just said a random name and wasn’t trying to ask for or guess hers.

“George,” he said while packing and not looking up, which surprised Ellie because she was already forming a way to get his name out of him before he told her.

A few minutes later, they were already on the road, walking beside each other, in silence.

***

At sunset, Ellie and George took cover in an abandoned house that still stood firmly on the ground, not like the others ... It had a just _slightly_ holey roof and a room with four walls – which was luxury compared to the others. Yes, maybe the house was all littered and had all the furniture and appliances taken out. Still, Ellie and George had sleeping bags with them and blankets and setting them down, they made quite a nice sleeping place.

 _“But really? Who takes everything_ and _the kitchen sink?”_ Ellie thought.

George made a small fire above which he stood up a metal tripod, like the one you’d use on a chemistry lesson, and on it, he set one of the cans of soup. George kept poking the logs on the fire to up the flames while they waited for their dinner to heat up, and Ellie was looking into the light, thinking about Jason.

 _“He was_ deaf _for God’s sake! What can they use him for? And he is_ ten _! Oh, poor Jason! What can he be doing now? What are they doing to him now?”_ Ellie thought, frowning in worry.

Without realising it, she was touching her little gold necklace with a ‘J’ charm on it. She bought the jewellery with her own money she collected before she was working. Ellie wanted to have something that reminded her of Jason when they weren’t together. She bought one for him too. It was a silver, man’s necklace with an “E” charm on it, representing “Ellie.” Though Ellie knew he wouldn’t wear it, when she got it for him, although after he asked why she bought it for him, and she explained, he wore it every single day.

“What d’you got there?” George asked while poking the fire under the tripod. He checked the soup if it was ready yet, but not yet.

“My necklace,” Ellie said, letting go of it and hugging her knees instead. George didn’t ask anything else, and Ellie didn’t elaborate on it. The conversation died off, and silence settled between them. The crackling of the fire and the scraping of the spoon in the tin were the only sounds heard, apart from the whistling wind through the gaps between the houses and the houses’ walls.

When the soup was ready, George gave it to Ellie with a new spoon and a slice of bread. She looked at him thankfully, though silently and started devouring her meal while he was heating up another one for himself.

After the quiet and short dinner, they laid down by the fire, and George fell asleep right away, snoring, but Ellie couldn’t sleep. She kept thinking about Jason.

After which seemed like hours, finally, sleepiness won her over and sitting against the wall – because, in the meantime, she had enough of laying on the cold floor – she fell asleep.

***

The next day when they woke up – a little too early for Ellie –, they packed up and were on the road again after a short breakfast. All this in silence. Ellie started to think that George was indeed not a people-person ...

Soon, they arrived out of the towns and onto the motorways. Ellie and George were walking on the green and yellow grassed side of the road, not on the asphalt, and passing only a few buildings that were either abandoned or ... not. It was harder for Ellie to walk for a long time on the grass-like uneven ground than it was when they were walking in the towns on the town-like uneven ground. Strangely, there were only a few trees as well, dotted along the motorway, so not many options for a break – not that they did stop that many times. George just went ahead like a tank, even though he was well into his forties maybe even well into his fifties ...

And it didn’t help that the sun was blazing with full power even though it was November, and Ellie’s dark coloured coat didn’t help with not feeling hot, but she couldn’t unzip it because then she’d catch a cold. Ellie had to endure it until the nearest group of trees where they did stop after hours of walking, but only for a short break to drink, then they continued.

Since George wasn’t a talkative person, except the occasional murmuring to himself, Ellie had to entertain herself. She started counting all the trees but got bored of it eventually because there weren’t that many, and she kept losing count. Then, when she saw a bird, she started counting those since they came almost every minute, which was strange. Ellie thought all the birds went south already ...

Just before sunset, did they stop again – Ellie counted fifty-two birds –, but she practically fell to the nearest tree out of exhaustion with a long sigh and asked George, “How can you just ... _go_?” Ellie threw her hands in the air. “Don’t you feel the need to stop and rest your legs?”

“You don’t have to come with me if you don’t want to,” was all he replied and started to set up a camp. “Be a dear and get some firewood,” he added flatly, and Ellie stood up, feeling more tired now than she was before she sat down, and walked among the trees to gather the fallen branches. It was a challenge in the twilight, but when she got a loose armful of different sizes and length, she went back to the camp where George had already set his up and set the place for the fire.

Ellie put the branches on the ground and fished her sleeping bag and blanket out from the depths of her backpack and set it up for herself while George was occupied by the fire. They had dinner then went to sleep. Looking at the stars above her by the warmth of the fire, Ellie was deep in her thoughts until she fell asleep.

***

They continued along the motorway for two more days until they came across a larger town, it was called something like, Burtunon, in which people still lived! Though it was half abandoned – like almost everything everywhere. Buildings with broken windows and blown-in leaves being blown out now.

The people who lived here were looking at the two of them cautiously. Ellie understood, but at the same time, she felt like a lab rat being watched to show signs of the experiment. The townspeople were eyeballing Ellie and George to see – to find out – who they were; friend or foe. They – or at least George, who was just marching ahead with his hands on the strap of his bag – didn’t take much notice and the muffled sound of their feet thumping on the asphalt was the only noise they made.

They found their way into a small store. There were a couple of customers in there, doing their casual shopping, probably locals, who looked up as the little bell above the door dinged, marking their arrival. They looked at them, measured them up, then looked back to their shopping like nothing happened. The shopkeeper behind the till practically glued his eyes on them, knowing and keeping it in mind that they are not from around here. He said nothing, though. Considering that they had money to pay for the stuff they were going to buy, he had nothing to be concerned about; and Ellie hoped he knew that too.

“You got money, right?” Ellie asked George as quietly as she could without the shopkeeper hearing. Luckily, he finally pried his eyes away from them and got to labelling jars.

“Of course, I do! Do _you_?” George snapped back, and Ellie nodded silently.

He nodded too and said, “Gather only what you can fit into your backpack!” He raised his finger. “We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow,” he finished and went to gather what he wanted to buy.

It was true, they still had two-thirds of the journey to walk to Hayick. Ellie saw a map at one of the bus stops earlier of the place they were at. Now, seeing one in the shop, she checked where they were and calculated precisely how much travelling they still had ahead of them.

Ellie thought through what she really needed for the next couple of days, what she had run out of, as she was going around the shop. There weren’t that many choices in there. Still, Ellie got everything that she needed – including that map she was looking at earlier –, and after paying for it, she waited for George outside.

“What else did you get?” Ellie asked, referring to the fact that he paid before her but went back to grab something he said forgot.

“Never mind that,” he waved her off. “Let’s find somewhere to sleep.”

They walked around, looking for either a motel sort or just an abandoned house where they can sleep at night before continuing in the morning. At first, they were just looking for a motel of sorts, but they found nothing while searching half of the town. Then they were just looking for an empty building, which they saw in a matter of ten minutes. It wasn’t the best – none of them was – but what the point was it had; a roof over their heads and four walls to protect them from the outside.

***

When the two of them reached Ashurn about six hours later, they were continuing through a park. Ellie admitted – but only to herself – that it was even scarier to walk between the greens than it was among the empty buildings. As they arrived into the park, they set up camp somewhere in the bushes, not to be seen. George asked Ellie to set up the fire since he had to do something. Ellie didn’t ask what he needed to do, but she obeyed. She had seen George do it enough times to remember how to do it herself, even though he only talked her through it once. Ellie thought he did that just because he was bored, even if he didn’t admit it to himself.

“Put out the fire!” George came rushing back, and Ellie froze for a second, not understanding. He was putting his jacket back on – which Ellie had no idea why he would take off in the first place – and he started to kick dirt on the fire. Previously Ellie had made the mistake of pouring water on it to put it out, and George had told her off because, for one, it creates smoke and two, they were wasting water that way.

“What’s going on?” Ellie asked in a hushed tone as George gathered his things and started throwing Ellie’s at her. Catching it, she rolled her sleeping bag up and grabbed her backpack, following George into the cover of the bushes. There he crouched down and shushed Ellie when she wanted to repeat her question.

“I saw a car pass by. _Their_ car,” George said as he was looking out to see what he saw earlier. “They’re patrolling,” he added quickly, becoming quieter.

Ellie didn’t say anything just looked around and out of the covers of the bushes to see what George saw. But she didn’t. Ellie didn’t see what George saw, though she did see a section of the road that was near them, she didn’t hear anything. The usage of cars has drastically decreased after two years of this starting because everyone who had one has moved away and took their cars with them. Those who have stayed and have cars have been in ‘accidental’ accidents that just happened to have the White Men around at the right time to take their kid. So, people stopped using cars, and got back to bicycles and walking. You could see kids who were left here by some _enormous_ luck, who had skateboards or scooters.

“Get down!” George’s hushed but commanding voice snapped Ellie back from her thoughts, and she ducked. She didn’t see though she did hear a car slowly roll by, and the static noise of walkies as if they awaited an answer. But this was way too close to be on the road.

Ellie tapped George’s shoulder and whispered, “The walkies were too close. They’re _here_.” She pointed to where they were hiding to emphasise what she meant.

“What walkies?” he asked back while shifting more into the cover of the bushes.

“The walkie-talkies they have.” She motioned a walkie-talkie in her hand and shook her head, following George. They were well in the covers now, and since it was twilight, there wasn’t any natural light to shine on them through the canopies and to uncover them. On top of that, they were wearing dark colours.

They saw three of them walk by slowly after a few minutes, and Ellie’s leg was getting tired. She tried to shift gently, so she didn’t rustle the leaves and drew attention to them, and she sat down. Even though she had made little to no sound, George still put his index finger to his mouth, mutely shushing Ellie.

They waited for the White Men to pass, which took a while since they were clearly searching for something or someone.

“Did they see us, do you think?” Ellie whispered.

“I don’t think so,” George replied, but so quietly, Ellie had to lean closer to hear him.

When the men did pass, luckily not seeing the two of them, they still waited in their hiding place to be sure they were gone, and only then did they step out of the covers.

“I don’t get why we were hiding. Neither of us is under eighteen, we won’t be taken.” Ellie said as they set the camp up again.

“It’s better to not be seen. You never know what kind of a mood they are in,” George replied in a monotone way.

Ellie nodded and helped him light the fire. “Where did you go off to earlier?” she finally asked. She had been dying to ask him since he came back.

“I had something to do,” he said curtly.

“Does it have something to do with that something you bought from the shop?” Ellie looked at him, curiously.

“Yes,” he said after a few moments.

“Is it to do with your family?” Ellie asked softly and quietly, but he didn’t answer this time, and she took that as a yes. She didn’t interrogate him anymore, just enjoyed the food that she bought for herself, and George did the same.

“We’ll be sleeping without fire tonight,” he said when they finished and put the remaining of the fire out. They didn’t make it that big, in fact, it was more of an ember when they re-lit it.

“Why? They have been here already.” Ellie protested, the cold of the night seeping in the openings of her coat, sending shivers down her spine and through her body.

“You never know. I think the men were looking for something and if they were, they would be back,” he explained.

“All right.” Ellie took her fleece blanket out and wrapped herself in it as she climbed in her sleeping bag. She shifted for a few moments to cover all her body parts with it because she knew it would be a cold night without the fire, and she didn’t want to catch a cold in this weather. Ellie heard George growl at her shifting, so she stopped and rested on her back and looked at the stars.

“Do you miss them, George?” Ellie asked, meaning his family while looking up at the stars shining down at them.

“Go to sleep, Annie!”

“Ellie,” she whispered and closed her eyes.


	5. THREE

After spending one more day walking in the woods and spending another fireless night, they came to the end of the park around noon the next day. They spent the rest of the day walking until they arrived at Bradod around late afternoon. This was a town that was majorly occupied by the locals and had stores and even a motel Ellie and George could stay at for the night. And shower! Ellie didn’t know how long she waited for and longed for a hot shower until she stepped under the water.

They asked for two separate rooms – it was George’s idea – but Ellie knew it wasn’t because he wanted to get away from her and have his own space for once. No ...

Spending quite a time under the water until she was warmed up to her bones, Ellie dropped down on the bed which wasn’t as soft as the one she had at home – after all, this was a low-rated motel, but a standing house, nonetheless.

Ellie fell asleep and woke up to pounding on her door. Her neck hurt from the position she fell asleep in, and she was massaging it as she walked to open the door.

“I’m going to go eat something,” George said.

“Did you run out of food?” Ellie asked, a brow raised in curiosity.

“No, but I crave a hot meal to eat.” He shrugged.

“Let me come with you. I just grab my purse,” Ellie said and grabbed it, locked her door and followed George downstairs.

They got into the cafeteria and stood in the line, and while they were waiting, they looked at the menu and discussed what they planned to eat. This was, by far, the most the two have talked to each other since they have been on this journey.

Ellie chose a kind of soup that both smelled and looked delicious, while George selected something beefy. She has never tried that, and it had a forgetful name, but it looked delicious.

Hearing all the chatter echoing through the room by the other people as they discussed their days and laughed and had arguments reminded Ellie how life has been before. She had almost forgotten how it was ... It is such a distant memory now, but seeing these people warmed her heart. She spooned her soup with a slightly hurting heart from the life she wished they still had and misty eyes from her tears of nostalgia.

After they finished, they went back upstairs, George yawning. Ellie’s room was first, and as they approached it, they saw the door was slightly open. She remembered she _locked_ it, so in her confusion, she looked to George. He was frowning and grabbing something at his waist, from under his jacket, he walked to the door slowly. Ellie followed him a step behind and peeked over his shoulder as he opened the door wider.

Nothing seemed to be out of its place at first, and she stepped out from behind George and ignored his disagreement with it. Ellie walked up to her bag and found it opened but seemingly nothing has been taken. She went into the bathroom and looked around if they were there, but no, there was no one. Ellie stepped out and closed the door, and as she was walking towards George, about to say that no one is here, she heard something from the wardrobe.

Ellie turned around, the sound trapped in her throat and her heart wanting to jump out of its place upon hearing the noise. George walked over with his arm extended towards Ellie, stopping her from doing something stupid like going over to the wardrobe and opening it and facing the intruder alone. George pushed Ellie behind him now, and she only now saw it that a knife was in his hand; which was probably what he was taking out from under his jacket.

He reached for the doorknob, and she saw him take a breath and clutch the knife harder as he threw the wardrobe door open and pointed the blade at the person hiding inside. George opened the door that blocked Ellie from seeing inside, and the bed was next to it so she couldn’t just walk over to next to him and peek in. She waited for George to grab the person and drag them out and only then did she see that the person who broke in was a boy, not much older than Ellie herself.

“Who are you?” While George held him, he shook him so that Ellie was the one going dizzy. George still pointed the knife to him, but only threateningly, at least Ellie _hoped_ he didn’t really want to use it. She just stood there, shaking with fear and anger, unable to speak for some reason though in her mind the thoughts of what to say to this person were fighting with each other to be the ones escaping her mouth.

“Answer me!” George shook him again, and this time he pushed him to the wall, hard. Ellie saw on the boy’s face that it did have an effect on him, but he remained silent while trying to mask the pain the hit caused him. But George didn’t let him go. “What were you doing in here? What were you looking for?” he pushed him against the door again and continued waiting for him to speak.

“Calm, down old man!” he said finally. “Let the lady speak too.”

“You don’t get to talk unless it’s an answer to the questions I asked. Now, let me ask one last time; who are you and why were you in here?” George pushed him against the wall once more, and Ellie had had enough. This evidently wasn’t working.

“George, stop! Let go of him.” She took a step to them.

“Thank you!” he said, loosening his shoulder.

“Don’t thank me yet just answer his questions,” Ellie said reasonably calmly but still firm.

“I was just looking for stuff to steal,” he admitted with a shrug.

“Give it back, and we’ll let you go.” She extended her hand toward him, waiting for him to obey.

“I didn’t take anything.” He shook his head. “You came back when I wanted to.”

“Why are you admitting to it this easily?” Ellie asked while frowning.

“Because I’m a reasonable man who listens to reason and not to _torture_.” He emphasised the word and looked towards George, who grunted and walked away but remained in the room.

Ellie looked back at him and looked into his eyes. After a few seconds, she said, “All right. Now leave.” She pointed to the door. “While I’m allowing you.”

He walked over and passed George, who kept his eyes on him as long as he could see him, and in the meantime, Ellie went to look through her bag more thoroughly. When she realised what was missing, the boy was only at the end of the corridor still, so cursing, Ellie ran out of the room and grabbed his jacket. She didn’t know where she got the strength from, probably just caught him off guard, but she managed to push him to the wall.

“Give it back!” Ellie shouted to his face with her hand on his chest to hold him down.

“I don’t know what you’re–”

“Cut the bullshit! I know you took my gold necklace and my money. At least give my necklace back. It’s important to me!” She extended her other hand toward him.

Sighing, like it was such a hard task to do, he reached into his pocket and pulled the necklace out. Ellie took it off when she went to shower and put it on top of her bag. At first, she didn’t realise it was missing because she thought it was on her as she took it off so rarely ...

“While you’re at it, you might as well give her back her money,” George said as Ellie took her hand off him.

“Is that a request?” he asked, rolling his eyes.

“That is an order,” George replied. “Someone in your position should know how to distinguish one from the other.”

“What do you mean?” Ellie asked, looking back and forth between the two of them.

She looked at the boy, then she finally noticed what he was wearing. Ellie saw a dog tag that was just about visible under his bottle green, zip-up hoodie. He had those pants on that resembled a soldier’s, they just weren’t the camouflage type; also, those kinds of military boots on, which lace up to above the ankles. He was visibly fit, even under the layers of hoodies however his face was worn. Bags sat under his eyes, and they were dull. His lips were dry, and his face was dirty on the side at the root of his short, brown hair.

“You were one of them,” she said quietly but in awe. He was one of those who got taken but managed to escape successfully and was able-minded.

“Good observation.” He rolled his eyes again.

“Don’t steer away from the topic. Give the money back and leave. In this order,” George repeated.

“Fine.” He reached into his hoodie and took her money out from his inside pocket. Ellie counted it, checking if he kept any, but everything she had remaining was there. She stepped away and let him continue walking down the corridor. Ellie was surprised none of the other residents looked out to see what the commotion was about.

With a last glance at them, he pushed himself away from the wall and turned around as did Ellie and George. She followed him back to the room and didn’t expect to hear the boy’s voice ever again.

“Hey, wait!” he shouted.

“Oh, what?” Ellie snapped.

“Where are you guys headed?” he put his hands in his pockets, looking down.

“Why do you think we’re headed somewhere?” George growled annoyed.

“Backpacks and tattered clothes, I’m guessing about a few, maybe five days old. You look clean,” he nodded to Ellie, “but then again, the bathroom floor is still wet, but you, old man, on the other hand, could use a wash. If you weren’t on your way somewhere, on foot probably, then you’d probably be cleaner, and wouldn’t have half your wardrobes with you along with tin cans of food.”

“You were thorough,” Ellie scoffed and looked aside. “His destination is the camp up north,” she added and ignored George’s piercing look for sharing information with a complete stranger.

“And yours?”

“I’m looking for my brother.”

“Who has been taken, and you’re going to find him.” This time he scoffed and looked aside, smirking. “You know how many times I heard this story? Mums, dads, brothers, sisters, friends, whoever, they were _all_ looking for their own, and guess how the story ends? They don’t find them. I know, I have helped a few just over the year I have been out.”

Ellie saw red. “How _dare_ _you_?” She stepped towards him. “How _dare_ _you_ come here, steal from me and insult me in a matter of ten minutes? You may not have somebody to fight for, but that doesn’t mean we don’t! Yes, I _may_ fail, but then I will fail while doing _something_ , like trying to find my brother! What have _you_ been doing since you ‘got out?’” Ellie emphasised the words, just as he said them. “Probably directing people to the wrong way and stealing from them too since that’s the kind you look like. _A liar and a thief_!” she spat. She was about to hit this bastard if George wouldn’t have put his hand on her shoulder and led Ellie away from him.

They went back to the room, and George sat her down on the bed and closed the door. He peeked out of the window to check if he was gone, then stepped next to Ellie.

“You okay?”

“Yeah. I just needed to let that out.” She looked up at him. “You can go now and do your own things. I will be fine. Otherwise, I’ll tell you.”

“All right,” he mumbled as he walked out of the room. As Ellie was alone, she put her necklace back on and clutched it in her hand so hard, she had a distorted ‘J’ imprinted in her palm. Ellie played back what just happened in her head and realised she might have acted a bit too dramatic. But it was important to her! He might not have anything important to him and only saw this as a way of making money by selling it because it’s gold. However, some people still cling to their small, sentimental, everyday objects, like a necklace or a ring.

Ellie fished her dead phone out of her bag and put it on charge. She didn’t know why, she didn’t know who’d call her since the only person who would is dead, but it was for an emergency. If she put it to an energy-saving mode, it can last for two days without charge, but she had a power bank.

As she was laying on the bed and the curtains closed, so it was dim, and sleep seemed so inviting to Ellie. With her coat and boots still on her, she fell asleep on the bed ...

... and woke up to someone knocking on the door.

Rubbing her eyes, Ellie squinted at her phone for being too bright even on the lowest brightness setting in this darkness. The time which she was checking didn’t register in her mind though. She unplugged the phone from the charger and stood up to open the door from which another knock came. Ellie hoped everything was all right with George, though what could he want from her?

Ellie opened it and at first, still sleepily, she saw a pair of booths, then dark trousers and a hoodie, and she finally realised it was her burglar.

“What _the hell_ are you doing here?” she snapped.

“You’re right,” he merely said, ignoring her piercing look.

“Of course, I am! But I thought you’d get it after I told you – after we _both_ told you – that we don’t want to see your face here anymore! Ever!”

“No, I mean about what you said earlier,” he corrected, and Ellie remained silent to hear him out. “I did have a sister, an older sister who wasn’t taken six years ago when I was. To her, I’m like your brother is to you only she didn’t come looking for me. But I do want to find her ... eventually, and if you are willing to forgive me, I would like to join you and Mr Grumpy Old Man to Hayick.”

“We never mentioned the name of the place,” Ellie said with growing suspicion.

“But I know of it,” he replied, truthfully.

“Then why haven’t you gone there yet? You’ve been ‘out’ for a year now, that’s what you said, so you’ve had plenty of time.” Ellie raised her brows.

“Yes, that’s true. I don’t know why I didn’t go there. I guess ... I was afraid of being discovered by them.”

“By whom?” Ellie frowned, not quite understanding.

“By the White Men as you call them,” he said, matter-of-factly. “By my Captain. They didn’t just let me go; you know. Why do you think no one has seen their loved ones who have been taken, for _ten years_? They _don’t_ let them go! Poor things grew up in the camps and are now completely brainwashed. Some of them were my trainers and Lieutenants,” he added. “I managed to escape with a couple of others, but we planned that for _months_. Paying attention to _everything_.”

“I see, all right.” Ellie nodded. “So, you say, you want to come with us.”

He nodded.

“What’s in it for us?”

He shrugged.

“You know,” she shifted her weight, “George barely let _me_ join him, and my destination isn’t going to be Hayick; do you think he’ll let _you_ on? After you tried to _steal_ from me?”

He looked down. “I said I was sorry.”

“I heard you.”

“I could ask him.” He suggested, now looked up to her.

“It’s the middle of the night,” Ellie said flatly.

“Right.” He nodded and looked away. “Then, in the morning.”

She ignored what he said though she heard it because something else came to her mind. “Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“If you’d have lived through what I did, you wouldn’t sleep through a night either. I wasn’t always a light sleeper, you know.”

“Well ... _I’m_ tired, so I’m going back to sleep. You occupy yourself until morning, or until George wakes up and then ask him. But I warn you, he is cranky in the morning. I should know I spent several days with him already.” She paused. “We’ll probably leave in the morning, so if you really mean it,” she stopped to let it sink in, “then you should try _right_ _after_ we stepped out of the motel. _Then_ you might have a chance. But it’s not up to me.”

“And if it were?” Ellie couldn’t help but notice hope in his voice.

“I don’t bother with the ‘if’-s. They steer me away from my main task.” Ellie shook her head. “Goodnight ...” Ellie paused, wanting to add his name to finish the sentence, but she didn’t know it.

“Lucas.” He nodded with a grin knowing her intention.

“Right. Goodnight, Lucas,” she said and closed and locked the door.


	6. FOUR

All Ellie remembered from yesterday is that Lucas came over sometime around the middle of the night and wanted to go with them, then falling back to sleep and forgetting about it and focusing on her dream with her brother. She missed him so much, it was breaking her heart. She needed him just as much as he needed her, and Ellie couldn’t imagine what kind of things he could be going through right now.

When she woke up from her nightmare-turned-sweet-dream, at first, Ellie didn’t remember Lucas. What they talked about yesterday, she only remembered that when she stepped out of her room after getting ready to go downstairs to eat something. George didn’t say a time when they had to meet up, but she did wake up around seven surprisingly. These early waking ups have disrupted her usual nine o’clock waking ...

Ellie had everything packed up since she didn’t take anything out, so if they needed to go, she just grabbed her bag – which she took downstairs with her – and was ready to go.

Ellie saw George sipping his drink while a woman was really trying to get his attention, unsuccessfully. He glanced up and saw her, but his face didn’t give it away, in case the woman wanted to turn around. However, he did put his mug down and nodded ever so slightly, for Ellie to understand and for the woman to not notice. She understood that inviting and pleading nod and walked over.

Once she was near enough, she said, “There you are! Are we leaving or what? I want to get to grandma’s in time for supper.” Ellie said it in a whiny way, acting younger and more impatient than she was.

“Right. Excuse me, ma’am.” George stood up, leaving his unfinished mug on the table, and grabbed his bag and practically pulled Ellie out of the room. “Thank you. That woman was talking my ear off. Believe me when I say that was my third cuppa since she kept ordering me another just so I can keep listening to her.”

“You owe me one.” Ellie laughed, and he rolled his eyes. “What was she talking about anyway?”

“Oh, don’t get me started. Anyway, you’re too young for this.”

“I’m twenty!” she said in a thank-you-very-much tone.

“ _Really_?” he asked, mocking the whiny voice she acted on in there.

Letting him win this round, Ellie kept silent, stepped aside and watched him check out. Ellie was looking down, trying to remove a dry ... something from her coat – unsuccessfully – and when she looked up, she spotted Lucas at the end of the hallway, just out of George’s vision. Ellie discretely nodded, meaning they’re ready, – or George is, – and she hoped he understood, and not just nodded to respond something.

“Done. Let’s get out of here.” George came back, adjusting the bag on his shoulders.

“I thought you enjoyed staying here,” Ellie smirked.

“I did.” He nodded. “Until that woman. Oh ... aaand there she is. Let’s go, Annie!” He literally pulled her after him.

Ellie just laughed and followed – or rather _ran_ after – George out of the building. As she got her arm free, she didn’t look back to see if Lucas was following or not. But he was, of course, because they weren’t on the road for a few minutes, and he just happened to be walking by them – Ellie had no idea how he got before them, but he appeared at one of the crossings.

“Hi, guys!” Lucas chirped as he walked up to the two.

“Oh, you again!” George groaned and walked past him, and Ellie shot him an encouraging look.

He hopped ahead, next to George and Ellie followed a step behind. “Yes, it’s me again. Listen, how about I tag along until the camp, huh? As I know it, that’s your destination, so you only need to endure me until then,” he argued. “How about it, huh?”

George turned to him and said, “No,” straight to his face, flatly.

But Lucas didn’t give up.

Before he could continue reasoning with him, George continued. “I’m already one too many people, I don’t feel like babysitting another person!”

“Hey!” Ellie called out but tried not to feel too offended.

George ignored her and just continued. “So, no! And stop hovering around me!” He made a swishing movement with his hand.

Lucas stepped back next to Ellie and leaned in, “He is always like this, right?”

“Not lately.” She shook her head, smirking. “What? You’re not used to somebody turning you down?” she asked playfully.

“Well, I didn’t have much chance at _schmoozing_ anyone back there, and I haven’t met _that_ many people since I’m out, so ... But I did not expect _this_.” He motioned forward to George.

“Then what _did_ you expect?” Ellie was still smiling at his defeat.

“I don’t know ... You know, that he’ll just shrug,” he shrugged as a demonstration, “or say ‘whatever,’ or ... I don’t know! I was kinda winging it.” He admitted. He said all this in his normal voice, not shushed, so George was likely to have heard all.

“Noticed,” Ellie scoffed, smiling. “Listen,” she said quieter, “just tag along, and we’ll see what happens at our next stop, okay?”

“Do you think that’ll work?” he whispered back, frowning.

“No, but do you have a better idea?”

“Nooo.” He elongated the word, unsure but thinking.

“Then, this is the plan.” Ellie nodded. “Oh, and try to keep your hands away from our stuff, okay? You know what? Just ... Don’t touch anything.”

“Ouch!” He grabbed his chest as if a physical blow hit him. “That hurts!”

“That’s life,” Ellie said, not whispering anymore and hopped next to George. She looked at him, smiling, but he returned a grimace confirming that he did hear their conversation. Looking away, Ellie shook her head.

 _“He’ll ease up. He can’t stay this grumpy forever,”_ Ellie thought.

***

About eight hours later, they stopped at a town called Grass town. _“Very creative,”_ Ellie thought. During that eight hours, Lucas and George didn’t talk; however, George was very well aware of Lucas tagging along even though he’d rather him not.

It was a deserted town, and by the looks of it, has been this way for quite a long time. The trio searched for a standing something that they could rest in for the night for it was close to sunset.

All those houses which they saw had no roofs or walls, so they had to choose one. Just then they came across a motel, which actually stood with all four walls. It must have been an average detached house once that got converted into a motel, and that’s what stood in front of them now. Or at least half of it for its back extension has been demolished, but the front, the ground floor was usable.

They saw dead flowers – or rather their dusty remains on the floor –, and everything was covered in fallen leaves from the nearby trees. There were some abandoned cars further down the street, all tagged and destroyed, parts were missing like the door or the hood.

Opposite the motel, houses were supposed to stand, but they looked the same as everything so far everywhere. All of them thought the same, they seriously doubted anyone has lived here for at least three years.

The first thing they noted when they stepped in was the smell. Something was _rotting_ in here. George went ahead – his arm in front of his mouth like Lucas’s and Ellie’s in front of theirs – while the other two went into the next room and looked around.

There were two rooms at the front of the house, one of them was a bedroom, and the other a lounge with a fireplace. Then there was the kitchen towards the back, as George reported, and a half-a-dining room. They couldn’t go upstairs because George said not to, but also because the stairs were missing a few steps where they turned.

They put their stuff down in the spacious lounge and George entrusted Lucas with starting the fire.

“I’m going to go and see if there is anything left here worth taking,” he said. “I’ll probably be back before dark.” And he stepped out of the door. Ellie followed him by looking through the dirty window until she could because Lucas pulled the curtains in.

“Wh– Lucas!” he almost walked into her if she hadn’t stepped aside. “Why are you pulling the curtains in? What’s up?”

“They are thick enough not to let light out, so we won’t be seen. You _never_ know when the White Men are around,” he said while he went into the other room and did the same. Ellie was frowning because it was as if she saw panic in his eyes.

He came back and started on the fire, but just a few minutes later it began to smoke heavily. Coughing, he began to put the fire out, and Ellie went to open the door and the windows. Pulling the curtains out, she struggled to pull the windows up. Lucas came to help, but it was no use, it was stuck.

“I guess we should have checked before lighting the fire,” Ellie said, coughing after almost every word.

“Probably.”

They were flailing around the room and in the hall to get all the smoke out the door as its only way out. It took them quite a time, but they managed to clear the lounge, but they didn’t have a way of lighting a fire now.

The two of them walked to see how the back of the building looked, and if they could make a fire there. It’s not as if any of the two have not slept outside before, so they got their stuff and moved it to the dining room. They cleared a big enough space for the three of them by pushing the rubble away and went to collect anything to light the fire with.

They started, inside the house, and that’s when they discovered the source of the rotting smell.

It was a body.

Ellie cried out and turned away, grabbing onto Lucas. He was staring at it but then moved to close the door. However, he needed help with moving the rubble away from the way.

“I’m not looking at that!” Ellie replied when he asked her.

“You don’t have to! Just turn around and help me clear this, so we don’t have to look at it and smell it anymore!” He practically commanded her, but she didn’t take it offensively and turned around – making sure she was looking at her boots – and she helped Lucas clear the rubble from in front of the door. He finally closed it with a sigh.

“That couldn’t have been years old, that was fairly recent. Maybe she was someone like us,” Lucas contemplated.

“Lucas– I don’t _care_ about the body, okay? It’s sad, I admit it, poor thing, but let’s just go back, okay?”

“We still don’t have anything to light the fire with.” He reminded her.

“Let’s just go outside. I’m a hundred per cent sure that we’ll find branches there that we can use.” She pointed towards where the front door was, eager to get away from near this room.

“Fine. You go back to the dining room, and I’ll gather the wood,” he offered.

“I’m not staying there alone!” Ellie whined though she didn’t plan it to come out like that.

“Well, somebody has to stay here with our stuff!” he snapped. “Unless you want to go out into the dark and gather wood, while who knows what lurks around.”

Ellie gave him a piercing look and shook her head in anger. “Fine! But don’t you think for a moment, it’s because of that pathetic sentence that was supposed to scare me.”

“No, of course not,” he said as he walked towards the door. What Ellie didn’t see was a smile growing in the corner of his mouth.

Ellie went back to the dining room. She heard the door slam shut, and it made her jump _._ Ellie looked around as if someone was there and saw her, which would’ve been embarrassing in her opinion. She was still waiting for Lucas, and when she wanted to check the time, she realised she left her wristwatch at home, and that her phone died.

 _“How did it die when I charged it last night?”_ she thought.

She heard a scream-ish shout and stood up.

“Lucas? Lucas!” Ellie shouted.

“Bah!” A voice came from behind her, and it made her jump so much, she tumbled. Seeing it was only Lucas with branches in his arm, she started to calm down but was still shaking from the cold, the fright and the anger.

“You–” She struggled to get up. “You, idiot!”

He was just laughing.

“Stop laughing and at least help me up!”

He put the wood down and stepped to her. He extended his arm, and she did the same and grabbing her wrists, Lucas pulled her up. She denied herself from getting distracted by his closeness and the fact that he was holding her hand– She pulled them out from his grasp and hit him in the shoulder.

“Idiot,” She stepped aside. Not even blinking as Ellie hit him, Lucas rolled his eyes and went to help her set up the fire.

***

George came back around an hour or two later with a bag half-full of stuff.

“I told you to light the fire,” he barked at Lucas.

“And we did,” Lucas replied, pointing to the fire burning and dancing in front of the two of them.

“And couldn’t you have done it in a more _enclosed_ space?” he asked in a mockingly exaggerated voice.

“We tried,” Ellie cut in, “but it got all smoky.” She shrugged.

“Oh, and we found the source of the smell, it was–”

“Oh, not, Lucas, stop it!” Ellie cut in again, not wanting to have the picture in her mind when she only started to try to forget it.

“–a body in the pantry.” Lucas finished.

“A body?” George asked, surprised. _Nobody_ was expecting it.

“Yes.” Lucas nodded.

“Show me.” George nodded away.

“Guys, come on!” Ellie called after them. She didn’t want to be left alone here, but she also didn’t want to go with them and risk seeing the body once more. She shivered. So she just remained where she was and waited.

They came back talking about it, but Ellie managed to tune them out. When they stopped talking for a second, Ellie asked George what he found, pointing to his bag.

“Not much, to be honest.” He shrugged, putting the bag down. “Most of the food that was left expired, and though I didn’t want to go around the whole town, where I did go, I found some blankets and this and that, that I might be able to sell off with the rest of my stuff.” He patted his other bag.

They made dinner with what they had, and after it, George said, “I don’t know about you, but I have had enough of sleeping on the ground, so I’m going to take the bedroom.”

“Knock yourself out,” Lucas said as he shoved the remaining of his food into his mouth.

“Are you sure?” Ellie asked George.

“Yes,” he said, turning away and heading to the bedroom.

“Why do I get the feeling he just doesn’t want to be near either of us?” Lucas asked as he put his plate down, finished.

“Just you, probably.” Ellie shrugged with a smirk in the corner of her mouth. She opened her bag to get the blanket out.

“How would you know?” he asked back.

She looked at him, asking, “really?” with her eyes. Then said, “Well, considering he didn’t want you here, but,” she motioned to the space around them, “here you are.”

“He said he’d rather you not be with him too.” He shot back.

Ellie opened her mouth to say something but then closed it and yanked the blanket out of her bag. “True,” she said quietly. Ellie went to get her sleeping bag out too, but she couldn’t find it.

“Here.” Lucas reached for it behind them and gave it to Ellie.

“Thanks,” she said and started to get comfortable. It didn’t really help that the wind was blowing in through the missing wall as if a hurricane was coming and making the fire dance, therefore, blowing its warmth towards the hall. Ellie pulled the blanket tighter around herself and shifted into her sleeping bag.

“Are you finished with this?” Lucas asked, pointing to her dinner.

She nodded. “M-hm. Thanks.”

“But you haven’t eaten anything from it,” he said, realising there was still half of it left.

She shrugged as much as she could, bundled up. “I wasn’t hungry.”

“Bullshit. You can’t be not hungry. Here, eat it!” He extended it towards her, but she didn’t take it.

“I said, I’m fine. I’m not hungry.”

“You know this will not be good in the morning. You’ve got to eat it now, or you’ll have nothing to eat tomorrow.” He pressed.

Ellie had enough. “Fine. Give it to me.” She pushed the blanket and sleeping bag away and reached for it. She finished eating it though it tasted like flour and looked like vomit.

“Are you sure you’re fine here? Wouldn’t you want to go to the lounge?” He looked at her with a worried expression which she didn’t notice because she was putting her plate in front of her, and when she looked at him to answer, he made it disappear.

“I’m _fine_.” She emphasised the word, starting to get annoyed with his worry, but finding it strangely comforting. Since Jason is gone, and Jane is also gone, there is no one in Ellie’s life to worry about her. Now that Lucas starts to care about what she does and how she does it, it _is_ annoying but comforting. “Besides,” she continued softer, “it’s still a bit smoky in there, and I don’t want to get a coughing fit in the middle of the night.” She pulled the blanket tighter. “But what’s this sudden need to make me feel comfortable? I’ve been on the road for ...” she did a quick calculation, “a week and a half now.”

“All right,” he said, putting his hands up, giving in.

Ellie sighed. She didn’t want to make Lucas feel bad, but her words must have come out snappier than she wanted them to. Lucas was poking the fire, seemingly deep in his thoughts.

“Sorry,” Ellie said finally. “I didn’t want it to come out that way.” He looked at her and shook his head, giving her a small smile, forgiving her. “What were you thinking about?”

He put the stick down with which he was poking the fire. Since it was a wooden stick, putting it down to the floor, it made it smoke because it was starting to burn.

“Everything. The camp – the others who are still there and the ones I got out with where they could be right now. Also, my sister – how she is and if she is thinking about me as much as I do of her. You ... and your brother,” he added quickly. “The journey ahead of us. This food, that it tasted _horrible_ ...”

Ellie laughed.

“That’s it!”

“What’s it?” She shook her head, still smiling, not understanding.

“I wanted to see you smile once again,” Lucas said, also with a smile, and it made Ellie look down and away to try to hide the fact that she was blushing.

He took the stick into his hands and started poking the fire again. “What’s your story, anyway?”

She frowned, slightly confused. “What do you mean?”

“Just that.” He shrugged. “What happened ten years ago and since then.” He wasn’t looking at her but at the fire. He felt like he couldn’t, or he would give his feelings away.

“Well ... I’m sure you heard this story many times already,” she paused, referring to the fact when he said he has met a lot of people in the year he was out. “But it started with my parents being beaten to death when I was ten. I got my baby brother and myself out of our house, down a rain-pipe and ran to my aunt’s house,” she started. “She raised us for the past ten years and successfully managed to avoid the White Men until recently.” She looked down to her hands. “Until they took my brother while he stepped away from us to throw his stupid rubbish in the stupid bin.” Her eyes started tearing up, so she stopped again, but now to calm down. “Then my aunt,” she wiped a rebel tear away that escaped her eyes and started to roll down her cheek. “She picked a fight with one of them, and they killed her. After that, I decided since nothing was keeping me at home, that I will find my brother.”

“Wow.” Lucas nodded and looked at her. “You climbed down a rain-pipe with your brother in your hands when you were _ten_?” he asked, completely shocked, but he might as well have pretended it.

“He was on me in that baby hammock thing, but yeah,” she chuckled, her urge to cry, gone.

“How did you manage to avoid them for _ten years_?” he asked, surprised.

“Luck?” She shrugged, smiling, not knowing the answer herself. “And the fact that we didn’t go to school. My aunt wasn’t a teacher, but there was one in the apartment where we lived, and she taught us. My brother is deaf, so we all had to learn sign language, but we could do that from the internet. Well, when it was working.” She rolled her eyes.

“I see.” He turned back to continue to poke the fire.

“And what’s _your_ story?” she asked, sitting in a comfortable position, looking at him poke the fire.

“You know ...” he put the stick down again, and Ellie looked away as it started to smoke again. “Mum, dad, older sister and me,” he began. “I got taken when I was sixteen, and my parents let them take me instead of fighting for me like you do for your brother. I was close to my sister, but she couldn’t do anything either for being eighteen at the time, and she could have been taken that day too, but they just came for _me_.

“They broke into our house,” he continued. “I remember the front garden thrashed; I figured my mum would have to spend a lot of time recovering it.” He sat back to the wall and pulled his leg up. “I don’t know if they’re still there, or if they’re still alive.”

Ellie kept quiet because she felt like he would continue, but when he didn’t, she asked, “Where did you come from?” Ellie’s voice was soft, processing all that she just heard.

“Manter,” he said, looking ahead, out of the broken wall. “Born in Don, but we moved to Manter when I was thirteen.”

She didn’t know what to say for some time, so they just sat there in the quiet watching the fire dance with the wind. The temperature really dropped now, and even though Ellie was fully clothed in warm clothes, and a blanket and a sleeping bag, she was shivering. The fire – because the wind blew it away from them and towards the hallway – didn’t give much warmth, and they both knew that, but it was a comfort, a symbol, and they didn’t want to put it out.

“So, are you going to search for your sister?” Ellie asked after some time.

“Probably.” He shrugged and grabbed one of the blankets and sleeping bags. “But only after I helped you with your brother,” he added.

“You sure you don’t want to go search for her instead?” she asked. Ellie felt terrible for possibly holding him back, even though she probably wasn’t. She couldn’t help but feel that way.

“Yeah.” He nodded. “While searching for your brother, it can be a side quest for me to search for my sister. I’m not entirely sure how we would do either one, but we’ll figure it out when we get there.” He looked at Ellie, hope glistening in his eyes.

***

Even though Ellie fell asleep sitting, she woke up laying on the ground. She looked up and tried to sit up, but her arm was asleep and entangled in the blanket and sleeping bag. She wanted to free it and managed to after a few moments of trying, then sat up and looked around.

The fire was dead, so it must have gone out somewhere during the middle of the night. Lucas was sitting against the wall, asleep, his head had fallen to one side, which would cause him a massive neck ache when he woke up. Their bags were where they left them.

Looking outside, Ellie saw that the yellow grass was not yellow anymore. Standing up to go and look, just to make sure she saw it right, she carefully stepped over the rubble. She walked outside, rubbing her gloveless hands together to generate warmth.

 _“I was right,”_ she thought. She saw it correctly. The grass wasn’t yellow, it was white because it snowed last night.

“Annie?” Ellie heard shouting from inside and headed back. Lucas was awake and rubbing his neck, standing in the hall.

“Lucas? What’s up?” She looked up, slightly smirking that she was right about his neck hurting. Looking down to her stuff to hide her smirk, she approached him.

“Oh, there you are. Where were you?” He looked up to her, but she was sitting down, so she didn’t see the worry in his eyes that disappeared as soon as she looked up.

“Outside. It snowed last night,” she added.

He nodded. “I noticed. Mr Grumpy is gone.” He shrugged while standing up and stretching.

“What?” Ellie shot up and looked in the bedroom. The bed was made, and outside, footprints led from the door down the street. “Why would he leave?” She turned to Lucas.

“He left his bag, though.” He pointed it out, and yes, it was sitting in the chair by the window. “So, he is coming back?” he frowned, thinking.

“Surely. He has all that stuff he wants to sell in it,” Ellie said dismissively and went back to the dining room to pack up. Lucas followed. “Oh, and by the way,” she smiled to herself thinking about it. “It’s not ‘Annie’. George calls me ‘Annie’ for some reason. My name is Ellie. I can’t believe I haven’t told you yet.” She was squinting at the space between them, but it was because of the fact.

“Ellie,” he echoed.

Ellie shook her head and rolled her blanket up and put it in her bag. Her stomach grumbled as she saw the food she had left in her backpack, and placing the blanket back down, she took them out and ate it as breakfast. Seeing her do it, Lucas proceeded to do the same. He didn’t have a big backpack like George and Ellie did, he only had a green canvas bag. As he zipped it out to take something out of it, if Ellie could believe her eyes – which she didn’t want to –, she’d have sworn she saw a gun in there.

“What is it?” Lucas asked, seeing Ellie stare at his bag.

“What?” She looked up, shaking her head, smiling, as if she didn’t know what he was talking about.

“Why were you staring?” he clarified but with a frown.

“Oh, I must have zoned out,” she said, and nodding, he turned back to search his backpack. However, Ellie couldn’t shake the strange feeling off her. Even though it might be nothing, if it indeed is that what she saw in there, this changed her view on Lucas, in a way that was uncertain even for her. Should she fear him? Or feel protected?


	7. FIVE

It was right after they finished breakfast when George returned.

“Where were you?” Ellie asked, following him into the bedroom with a frown on her face.

“Grab your bags. We’re leaving right now,” was all George said, and not waiting for the two of them, he went out the door – but left it open.

Ellie ran back to the dining room and grabbed her bag.

“What’s up?” Lucas asked, looking up at her, confused.

“We’re leaving, come on!” she shouted back, on her way out of the room. Lucas went running after her, slamming the door shut, and they both ran after George.

“What happened George? Why did you leave this morning?” Ellie asked as they caught up to him. They walked along next to him. They looked at him and at each other, waiting for him to answer.

“Last night I woke up to a car rumbling past the building,” he started. “Good thing you pulled the curtains in and lit the fire in the back, otherwise they would have seen you,” he paused, and continued after a few moments, letting what he said sink in.

“I watched the street for a while after that, in case they came back, but no.” He paused. “This morning I saw the tyre tracks in the snow, and I went to follow them, to see if they were in town, and they were, but on the other side. If we had stayed there any longer, they would have found us by following my footprints. It would have been only a matter of hours,” he finished. “They probably are after us now,” he added.

As he said it both Lucas and Ellie turned back to see if anyone was following them down the road, but no.

There was no one there.

“So, we’re just going to walk on the road in the snow until we get there?” Lucas asked, and Ellie knew how he meant it.

“For now, yes,” George replied. “Until we can find a way out of town. After that, probably in the woods.” Lucas and Ellie exchanged a look that was a sceptic, afraid and determined at the same time.

After about half an hour of walking, they were close to a river as Ellie’s map said, so they decided to walk along with it and not along the road. Soon – hours later –, the river split into two. At first, they were having an argument at the riverbank about which way to go, left or right, but Ellie turned out to be right about the fact that they needed to go right.

George admitted it after inspecting the river on the map better, and something _dinged_ inside Ellie that she made the move, and that made her smile but hid it from George before he took her smile wrongly.

The river started to get narrower as they went on, and too soon they came to another choice, left or right. This time the correct way was left, and that’s where they went.

Hours after they left Grass town, the river turned unusable, and they had to continue on the road by Outer Shaw. They found stone-built houses there, which held, and they stopped for a break, to refresh and to sit for a moment. A little while later they continued, and finally, they stayed for the night in Aysgil, after walking all day. The place wasn’t much, just a couple of houses. Ellie wondered why they even bother naming these places ...

They went into one of the barns and slept there for the night, George moaning that he needs to sleep on the ground again.

“There is some mouldy hay if you want to sleep on something softer.” Lucas pointed out, and Ellie had to hold back a chuckle.

George looked at all the hay around them, then back to Lucas. “You sleep on mouldy hay!” he grumbled. “Mouldy hay, I’ll give you mouldy hay,” George muttered under his nose as he shoved it aside with his foot to make room for his sleeping bag. Lucas and Ellie exchanged a look in which their eyes laughed, but they did not as they didn’t want to make George angrier than he was.

They put their bags down as well, and just to prove a point to George, Lucas put his blanket on top of a bigger pile of damp hay and laid on top of it. Crossing his arms under his head and his feet at his ankles, he smiled at George, just to annoy him. Ellie chuckled but tried to muffle it, for George gave her a piercing look.

Ellie placed her bag down by Lucas’s and helped George search for dry wood for the fire. They went around the whole place – it didn’t take much time, really –, but they didn’t find any dry ones, so they went back empty-handed.

“You guys, did you find any wood?” Lucas asked, rubbing his hands together to warm them up.

“No, sorry.” Ellie shook her head. “All of them are wet.”

“Damn.” Lucas laid back down on his damp hay.

“Better get some sleep while you can, we’re going to have a long night, and we’re starting early tomorrow,” George said and sat down on his sleeping bag and started getting ready to get rid of them by going to sleep.

“Well, we’re gonna have another cold night,” Ellie crouched down and started getting what she needs out of her bag. When she did, she stood up and headed outside.

“Where are you going?” Lucas looked up from eating his apple, which Ellie had no idea where from or when he procured.

“I’ll be just a moment,” she said and went out to look for a bush.

When she came back, she found George sleeping already, and Lucas throwing something up into the air and catching it and repeating this. It was getting dark for her to see more than outlines, and besides, the item was going too fast for her to see in this dimness. Lucas stopped and looked at Ellie as she stepped in and went back to his throwing game.

There was enough space for her to lay on the hay as well, so she did. Ellie lay down next to Lucas and looked up to the roof. She heard an occasional creak and something resembling a scurrying animal. Still, she tried not to think too much of it. Ellie pulled her sleeping bag on her and pulled the blanket tighter around her as well. She saw Lucas did as well, and she said, “I have another blanket if you want it,” because he didn’t have as much of a warm coat as Ellie did, he just had a hoodie and a denim jacket.

“I’m fine, but thanks,” he said. “But you use it if you want to.”

Ellie considered it and decided to take it out. As discreetly as she could, she only used half of it and put the other half between them, but in a way that seemed like just leaving the rest there, and not in a suspicious way.

It felt still just as cold as yesterday, but maybe it was a bit warmer because there was only half as much snow around. The barn doors were closed, but the wind still blew in and whistled through the cracks in the walls.

“What are you thinking?” Ellie whispered, turning to look at Lucas.

“Just what will happen after we drop Mr Grumpy off at the camp.” He shrugged. Ellie didn’t see this but felt it due to the hay moving. “You know ... I don’t know how we can find your brother,” he admitted, and though this made Ellie uneasy, she waited for him to finish. “I don’t know which camp they took him to. I don’t know if he is still there or has been transferred or if he is dead.” Lucas stopped suddenly, and Ellie took a sharp breath. “And I don’t know who to ask that would be safe. The only way I know for sure that we could find out is madness!”

“What is it?” Ellie asked instead of telling him off for thinking her brother is dead.

“Ah, never mind.” He waved it off dismissively.

“No,” she leaned on her elbow to face him. “Tell me now that you’ve started it!”

He sighed. “I know that they keep a record of the other camps in the camps’ archive. I know this because I was sent to help the person keeping it tidy as punishment once. It wasn’t much of one, really,” he trailed off. “Anyway,” he shrugged. “If we were to break in, we could find the documents of the other camps and see where our next stop would be.”

“Then why don’t we do it?” Ellie asked. Putting the information of these ‘other camps’ aside.

“Because it’s madness!” he whisper-shouted.

“Why?” Ellie frowned.

“‘ _Why?_ ’” He scoffed. “Because for one, the only way to get in is to get captured and we’re both over eighteen, though I might be able to get back in since I escaped, but you ... not really.” He shook his head. “At least I don’t think so. Secondly, yeah, we’re in, and then what? We can’t just waltz into the archives! Everything is under lock and key and at least two sets of eyes! And lastly, _if_ we get in and _if_ we get the file, how are we getting _out_?”

“The same way _you_ did.” Ellie nodded.

“Yeah, well, I doubt there is another person who is willing to sacrifice their lives as my Lieutenant did.” He sounded annoyed, just mentioning this.

“We could _try_!” she pleaded.

“Ellie, no! I’m not going back there. I can’t!” he said. “Listen, even if we get in – which seems more likely every second – there is such a little chance we’ll get out that the whole thing is not worth risking!” He paused. “You never saw one of these places. They’re like a _fortress_. And the one I’m from is on an island called the Lonely Island.”

“Yeah, I know of it.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not how it’s used to be. They built a proper _fortress_ there, a military one. Imagine hundreds of people in camo, all stone-hearted and blank-faced and brainwashed to think they are doing something right and imagine hundreds of more people, the children who were kidnapped. Some are the ones who train you like you’re in the military, some are simply soldiers or guards. Imagine someone every five metres, you can’t even go to the bathroom without one watching you!” He paused and took a deep breath, clearly shaken up by the memories that must be zigzagging in his mind. “They don’t care if you’re a girl or a boy, to them, you’re one thing: a soldier. On top of the physical stuff, they break you mentally, so you’ll forget yourself and become one of them! One of their _puppets_ for ... whatever they are doing this for!” He let the words sink in. “It is _hell_ , Ellie! I understand you want to do this for your brother, but there _has to be_ another way.”

“And if there isn’t?” she asked, desperate, and a tad bit louder than a whisper. She stopped right after and looked at George, but he was still asleep. “And if there isn’t?” she repeated, now whispering. “Would you come with me to the camp and help me then? I _know_ I wouldn’t be able to do it alone; I knew that in the beginning, but I have no one else. Not anymore. You’re the only one I can count on since I have George only until we get to the camps.” She paused. “So, will you help me?”

Lucas didn’t say anything for some moments, probably thinking through both what he and Ellie had just said.

“Look, we’re all tired tonight, let’s revisit this tomorrow, okay? With a clear head.” He took the other half of the blanket and shifted closer to Ellie. “I wanna help you, but you gotta understand ...”

“I do. Believe me, I _do_.” She paused. “And I _know_ you understand why I want to do this. I wouldn’t if I had any other choice, but I don’t right now.”

“I know. I know.” He sighed then remained silent. His closeness comforted her, and she didn’t think of him as a stranger anymore. Spending those hours together the way they did, really does help two people to connect.

***

The next morning when Ellie woke up, she found her head on something that was not hay nor her blanket. She looked up and saw Lucas staring back down at her.

“Morning,” he said in a sleepy voice. _“He probably just woke up too,”_ Ellie thought.

Ellie quickly withdrew herself and sat up. She doesn’t remember waking up at night, and they weren’t that close to each other yesterday. Nevertheless, Ellie felt quite embarrassed and would like him not to comment on it. She started getting ready, thinking George was already up, but when she looked towards him, she saw he was still asleep.

“He is still sleeping?” Ellie asked, disbelieving, pointing at George.

“Yeah, it’s kinda early. The sun is not fully up yet. At least as much as I can see from inside, I couldn’t really go out and check.” He smiled, but Ellie saw he tried to hold it back.

“Shut up!” she murmured, hiding her smile and the fact that she was blushing, and stood up. After stretching, she walked to the door and pulled it to the side just enough to let herself out, but instead, snow flowed in. “Uhm, okay,” she muttered but stepped outside.

It turned out that the snow wasn’t _that_ deep, it only reached just above her ankles, the wind just blew it against the door during the night, and it built up.

Ellie, looking around, found the snow mesmerising as it was glistening in the faint light of the sun as it rose. The crisp air was refreshing with the occasional singing of those birds which stayed for the winter, as they started to wake up too.

Ellie heard Lucas walk up to her. “It’s pretty, isn’t it?” she asked, still looking at the view.

Lucas looked at her, at first because she spoke, but then something caught his eye about her. After a moment, he said, “Yeah, it is.” Because he was still looking at Ellie from the corner of his eye, she noticed, and so he looked away. 

They headed back into the barn, had breakfast and started packing up as quietly as they could, but still not really bothering not to wake George up. At one point they didn’t hear him breathe, and Lucas even went over and checked if he was still alive, and showing a thumbs up, he came back.

“He is still breathing.”

“You’re an idiot.” Ellie shoved him playfully, and he mouthed an “ouch.”

George still didn’t wake up, but the two of them had been up for about an hour already. Ellie tried again with her phone, and though she thought the battery was dead, it was just turned off. Checking the time, she realised it’s close to nine.

“Do you think we should wake him up?” Ellie asked quietly.

Lucas looked at George, then turned back to Ellie. “Have you ever done that before?” he asked, frowning, not finding it a great idea for George was always grumpy, therefore, now knowing how he would react to being woken up.

Ellie looked at George, a slight crease appearing on her forehead as she was thinking her plan through. “No ...”

“Do you know what’s going to happen?” Lucas asked, shifting to another sitting position.

“He’ll probably be cranky?” Ellie shrugged, ready to stand up but still, something kept her back.

“Exactly.” Lucas looked back to him again. “Knock yourself out,” he said in the end and leant back on the hay.

Sighing, Ellie stood up after giving Lucas an unsure look and walked over to George.

“Hey, George?” she started gently shaking him. “George!”

“Hm?” he muttered with closed eyes.

“It’s nine, when do you wanna leave?”

“In the morning,” he murmured.

“It’s morning.” Ellie chuckled.

His eyes shot open, and he sat up, almost knocking her over as she was standing above him. “What’s the time?”

“Nine,” Ellie repeated.

Neither Lucas nor Ellie has ever seen him do anything so fast. He got ready in less than ten minutes, and they were on the road again after he left the barn saying only a, “Come one, then!”

“Annie, check the map,” George called back a few minutes after they were on the road again.

Rolling her eyes, she reached behind her, but Lucas stepped next to her and was already getting it out from the side pocket on her bag.

“Thanks.” Ellie smiled and stopped, and they all got around her. “If we can believe that little, broken sign we pieced together when we came here,” she started, “then we’re here.” She pointed to the map for the others to see. “And we’re going there.” She pointed to Hayick.

George scratched his chin. “That’s about two days’ walk.”

“Good. Let’s go.” Lucas patted Ellie’s shoulder and started walking.

“First and only time when I will agree with him,” George said quietly to Ellie as they followed Lucas.

Fortunately – or unfortunately – the way out of the greens was on a paved road, and they arrived out of the greens in about two hours. Of course, Ellie was checking her phone by this point, telling herself off for not doing this before. Though she had little service, she did have money for calls, texts and internet, but didn’t plan on using it unless she absolutely had to.

They arrived at the outskirts of Kirphen, according to the map. They stopped here only to get food and water, then they were on their way again. This place looked like it was a lovely town once. With its stone-built houses and pretty, front gardens.

Half an hour later, they came to a crossroad and headed left. The three turned down on the intersecting road, and in an hour, turned left again, following the road. Another hour later the three went through a little town, abandoned, of course, and turned right to continue following the road, and then ended up in the woods again.

They debated whether they should follow the road that went on the perimeter or cross through the woods.

“But we’re more exposed on the road!” Lucas argued. “Of all people, I thought _you_ would get that.” He pointed at George.

“Yes, I do, and don’t you go around talking to me like that!” George shot back. “I _know_ it’s safer in the woods, but the road is quicker, and I’m _itching_ to get rid of you already and get to the camp!”

“Come on!” Lucas threw his arms up.

“Guys!” Ellie tried to tell them about what she spotted, but they were too busy arguing.

“You can’t hate us so much to risk your life!” Lucas pointed at George, both fuming already like a steam engine.

“I’d rather not, but I don’t want to wander in the woods for another day just because somebody didn’t want to go on the road!” George mocked him.

“Guys! Shut up and look at the road!” Ellie shouted to what they finally quieted down.

“Thank you.” George pointed at me while looking at Lucas.

“No! Look at the tyre marks.” She pointed to their feet. “A car has been here. Since we didn’t see it before it came from that way.” She pointed behind them where the road came from. “We’re taking the road in the woods, George if you want to take the road, be my guest!” She grabbed Lucas’s arm and dragged him down the road leading into the woods.

“No, wait!” George called after them.

“What now?” Lucas asked, turning back, clearly annoyed.

“Look there!” George pointed behind them.

There was a grey, one-storey building behind them through the trees. Looking at it more, Ellie realised it wasn’t one building, but five, six ... seven little ones. Just by the road leading in, there was an old sign half covered in vines. Only the first word was visible, which was “military,” and that was convincing enough to make Ellie turn around.

“But there aren’t any tyre marks leading in,” Lucas said as they went to follow George down the road.

“That doesn’t mean there aren’t anybody home, son,” Gorge shouted back from the front.

They walked on the road until Dotfun, a little town, where there were tyre marks and footprints for theirs to get lost in. Then they continued in the woods until they reached Labey where they stopped for the night. And though it was dark when they got there, George didn’t want to sleep in the woods, he’d preferred a four-walled building, which will protect him from the cold; and Ellie and Lucas agreed, so they followed him through the woods, eyes getting heavier as the sun has already set early since it’s winter.

There, the church seemed to be the best place to sleep in. And not just because George saw that first from its spiky roof.

They turned down onto the grassy path that led to the church through a graveyard. In the light that the streetlights gave, Ellie saw that most of the headstones were destroyed. Only its bases were sticking out of the ground, but those that were laid down, remained, though the writing was unreadable now on some and not just because of the night.

The yellowish-green grass peeked out from under the blanket of snow it was covered with, and only their footprints set them free as they walked across the graveyard.

The side door needed a little nudge as it clearly hasn’t been used for a long time, and stepping in, the first thing Ellie noticed was the cobwebs and the mess inside. All the benches were messed up, not in the neat rows they should be. Some of the windows were smashed that they didn’t notice from outside, and therefore the floor was scattered with leaves and twigs and some snow.

They made their way, zigzagging between the benches, to the little room at the back of the church to put their stuff down. There was a heater there, and George tried it, and by some miracle, it turned on!

There were chairs and sofas in there so they could sleep on that, and as per usual, George ate his dinner and went to sleep right away. Lucas and Ellie were laying on a sofa each, which happened to be next to each other, and with their backs to each other, they were looking up at the cobwebbed ceiling.

“Listen, about our plan,” Lucas started, and Ellie remained silent to hear him out. “I did think about it, but I still think it’s a terrible idea.”

She turned on her front and looked at him. He turned around as well.

“I understand, I do, but right now we don’t have a better plan,” She whispered. “Unless either of us can come up with another plan on how to find the other camps or my brother, _this_ is our aim.”

Lucas was quiet for some moments, thinking, then asked, “What if there is someone in that refugee camp who escaped like I did? What if it’s one of those who escaped with me?”

“I wouldn’t get my hopes up, besides,” Ellie paused, “what kind of relationship did you have with the others who escaped with you?”

“Uhm, well, there were a couple of guys I shared a room with and talked to a few times.” He thought, then looked at her. “If they are there, I could ask them if they know.”

“Let’s say they don’t,” she suggested. “What then?”

“Ellie, you can’t think this way!” he whisper-shouted.

“You’re the one with the ‘what if’-s!” Ellie pointed out.

“Right. Okay,” Lucas nodded, but he didn’t seem offended. “At least now, we have two plans. First, go to the camp and ask around if there is anyone from the Lonely Island, and if yes, we ask them and follow their instructions, whatever that may be, to lead us to the camp your brother is likely to be held; and if not, then we go to the island and find out ourselves. In case they don’t know anything, then it’s plan B. Does that sound doable to you?”

She sighed and turned back on her back. “It will have to do for now.”

After a few moments, seeing through her, he asked, “What’s up?”

“I keep thinking about Jason. What he could be doing right now, what he could be going through ... After all, he is deaf! He can’t hear the commands and the tell-offs, and he can’t communicate with the others– He must be going through hell.” Ellie threw her hands in the air, then wiped her cheeks for rebel tears were rolling down on them.

“I told you before. These places _are_ hell themselves,” Lucas added.

“Can you tell me more about them?” Ellie asked quietly.

Lucas shifted on his back and crossed his hands on his body. “What do you wanna hear?”

“Everything. I want to know _everything_. When we get to the camp, you need to draw me a map of the place. Or draw a map of what you know.”

He chuckled. “All right. Well,” he started, “imagine greyish green and white walls. _Everything_ is that coloured. The doors are made of metal, and they are _creaking_. All of them. I haven’t had a door I needed to open that wasn’t creaking. Also, there are no letters, just numbers on the walls and doors, some go up to a thousand.” He paused.

“The dorms. Oh, boy. First of all, it’s mixed – boys and girls together. There is a big room, filled with beds along the walls and in another room, there is the bathroom. It could occupy ... about ten people at once.

“They have rules for _everything_! What you say and when and how. When you eat and where and what. When you sleep and until what time. What you do during the day ... stuff like that. Basically, there is a rule for everything you can imagine, but not every one of them is a written one. You don’t get a handout of all this; you need to _know_ it the first time.” He stopped to think about how to continue. Though he didn’t see, Ellie was trembling just thinking about Jason being in this kind of an environment.

“They are _cruel_. They are,” Lucas nodded to reinforce his statement. “They wanna break you, they wanna make you think like them, or just be a puppet. And the training is horrible. Of course, some can stand it better than others, but for one, I wasn’t one of them.” He shook his head. “You will be _melting_ by the end of the day. Not aching, _more_ than aching. Your aches will ache. And you wake up at five and go to bed at ten. In-between this, there are three meals, and the rest are military training.” He shook his head again. “I don’t know why they wanna train us to become soldiers. Is there some sort of massive war coming, that they had to start preparing years beforehand?”

They stayed quiet, letting the words sink in.

“Isn’t it weird that nobody knows why they do this? At least not the public.” Ellie asked, trying to hide her fear.

He frowned. “Yeah. My time there, I didn’t find anything out, though the question was in my mind, non-stop.”

“It does sound like a place nobody wants to go to, but I _have to_. For my brother. He can’t do it himself – get out from there, I mean – so I need to help him. And if it requires me going through this just to get to the next point in getting to him, I will do it.” She finished, and Lucas held his words for a moment but then said,

“That’s very nice of you, but let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”


	8. SIX

The next morning, they were on their way already when Lucas asked, “What’s that?”

He didn’t point anywhere just plainly asked, but they were all looking ahead and behind and above them, searching for whatever Lucas would have meant. They all thought he might have seen a car or a person.

“No, do you hear this sound?” Everyone stopped and quieted down to listen over the wind. Then Lucas pointed to Ellie, realisation appearing on his face. “It’s coming from your bag.”

Frowning, she took it off, and as she unzipped it, the sound got louder.

“It’s ... my phone?” Ellie looked up to the other two, confused, then fished the device out of her bag. “It’s a blocked number.” She said, looking at it as if she has never seen it before.

“Don’t answer it,” said George in a commanding voice, scared. “You never know; it might be someone trying to find your location.”

“You should put it on flight mode,” Lucas suggested with a wave, getting uninterested at this point. He would’ve wanted Ellie to answer the phone.

Nodding, she declined the call and put it on flight mode; that way, no one could call, but she will still be able to use it.

“Who could have called me?” Ellie asked, putting her phone away. “No one ever calls me, besides Jane.”

“Who’s Jane?” Lucas asked.

“My ... aunt.” She said, looking down.

“Oh,” he breathed as they followed George, all ignoring Ellie’s question, but she knew that it was because none of them knew the answer for it and guessing would do no good.

***

They only walked for a few hours, when the wind started to pick up and blow strongly. Not long after, snow joined in, and they were forced to pull their scarves in front of their faces. Ellie needed to lend Lucas a scarf since he didn’t have one, and she accidentally packed two. So now, he was walking against the wind with a beige and white, star-patterned scarf and a black hat. It went well with his denim jacket and his hoodie ...

One time the wind blew so strong that Ellie had to stop because she couldn’t walk against it. Then, Lucas stepped next to her, and grabbed her hand, pulling her after him. George struggled as well, his scarf soaring on the wind behind him. He did stop from time to time to collect himself, too, then continued, as the others did.

At one point the wind and snow became one big snowstorm. The three had to find a place to stay, to wait it out – preferably one with four walls and a roof.

“There is something up ahead!” George shouted over the wind. No one answered, they just followed him, hoping he knows where he is going.

Ellie didn’t see what George did because the wind blew snow into her face wildly, and she didn’t know if Lucas did; she was following him while he still held her hand and prevented her from wandering off.

Blindly following George since _he knew_ where they were going, Ellie almost walked into him at one point when he stopped to let Lucas and Ellie catch up.

“It’s not far now,” George shouted. Ellie nodded, and Lucas did too, and though he said something because Ellie saw him remove the scarf from his face and saw his lips moving though none of them heard a word.

George turned forward to lead them again. Freezing, Ellie walked closer to Lucas, for one because his closeness in this storm was comforting. He looked at her and nodded as if asking if everything was all right, and she nodded back, meaning, ‘yeah’.

Finally, they saw the building George was leading them to and tried to hurry up to get inside. Ellie only saw that it was _standing_ in this storm, she didn’t know if it was a house or something else. Still, it looked big, greyly towering above everything else as they approached it.

Lucas let go of Ellie to help George open the stuck door because of the snow that piled up in front of the door they spotted and chose to use. When they finally got it open, the wind ripped it out of their hands and blew a fair amount of snow inside.

“Get in!” Ellie faintly heard George shout. She walked in first, then Lucas and then they both struggled to close the door because the wind kept grabbing it and pulling it against them.

Ellie turned around when they managed to finally close the door, shaking the snow off herself, removing the scarf off her face and opening her coat. She suddenly stopped because a man was standing in front of her ...

... with a rifle pointed at them.

“Guys?” she called back, panicked. The boys were chatting at the door about something she didn’t pay attention to, but they heard her call and halted just as she did.

“You are not welcome here!” said the man in front of them.

“Listen, mate,” George stepped forward, hands up in mid-air to show he is unarmed. Of course, Ellie knew about the knife at his waist, but that no one could see when his jacket was zipped up. “We just want to wait out the storm somewhere. We don’t mean any harm. We’re heading up north.” Ellie felt like he just added the last part to try to convince the man with the rifle that they are indeed travellers who are genuinely just going through here.

George’s tactic on mentioning that must have worked because the man was silent, calculating. “To where?”

“Hayick,” George said and lowered his arm. “Listen, we just need a place to sleep at for the night, or until the weather calmed down enough for us to go back out there. Is there anyone here other than you?”

“My wife.” He nodded towards the back of the building, which now that Ellie could see, noticed it was a church. _Again_. The man lowered the rifle, the pressure and the aggressiveness lifting off him. “We’re on our way from up north to relatives here.”

“Will you let us stay, then?” Lucas cut in, getting impatient, and Ellie gave him a look but then shivered because there was a cold breeze coming in from somewhere and caught her off guard.

“Fine. You can have this space here.” He motioned around them.

“We’re fine with it. Thank you.” George nodded.

“I’m Lance, by the way, my wife is Susan.” He nodded to the back again.

“George,” he said. “And this is Lucas and Ellie.” He pointed at them as he introduced them. Ellie silently noted the fact that George called her “Ellie” and not “Annie.”

Lance nodded and retreated to the back room.

“You called me Ellie,” she said quietly.

“That’s your name, isn’t it?” George replied, not looking back at her but walking forward to the corner where he then set his bag down.

“Yeah, but you call me ‘Annie’ all the time. Why is that, by the way?”

He didn’t speak for some moments, and when she thought he wouldn’t answer, he said quietly, “Because Annie was my daughter’s name, and you remind me of her.”

Lucas looked up when he heard this, but none of them noticed. He saw something in George’s eyes, as well as Ellie’s, but hers was different. George’s was how people look when they talk about lost loved ones; hurt and sad, but proud. Ellie’s look ... he found her harder to read. She looked confused but honoured in a way.

Neither Ellie nor Lucas or George knew what to say after that, so they just remained silent. Ellie fiddled with her bag.

They couldn’t light a fire inside, for obvious reasons – next to the fact that they didn’t have anything _to_ light – so George asked if Lance had found a heater that he could spare. Lance looked at George like he was mad, but then George explained how lucky they were at the last place, but here, they weren’t so fortunate. Lance did, however, give them some extra blankets that he found in one of the cabinets. They got two extra each, which they laid down on the floor and put their sleeping bags on them.

Sharing all the food they had left among each other, they ate, then, as per usual, George fell asleep. Lucas and Ellie chatted for a bit in the torchlight, by the barricaded window before they fell silent, out of topics. Then Lucas spoke.

“Would you teach me?”

“Pardon?” She looked at him, confused, just about making his features out.

“Sign language,” he corrected, “so that I can talk to your brother too or understand when you’re talking about me,” he chuckled, hoping it would lift the gloomy mood that has settled in the room.

“Oh, okay. Uhm ... What-what do you want to start with?” She sat up, leaning against the wall and bringing the torch closer.

“I don’t know. Uhm ... maybe my name?” He sat up too and crossed his legs, wrapping himself in one of his blankets.

“Yeah, okay.” She shifted closer so that in the light of the torches, they could see each other better. “Basically, the letters are different. You spell it out, it’s not one word, like ‘book,’” she said, showing the sign for ‘book’ which was putting her palms together then opening them, imitating a book.

“Okay.” He nodded and shifted his weight.

“So, you’re using your dominant hand,” she put her right hand up, and Lucas did too, ready to copy her. “This is ‘L,’” she laid her right index finger on her left palm. “This is ‘U,’” she pointed to her little finger on her left hand. “Basically ‘A’, ‘E’, ‘I’, ‘O’ and ‘U’ are your five fingers on your non-dominant hand.” Ellie wiggled her fingers on her left hand. “So, ‘U,’” she showed him again, “and ‘C,’” she formed a ‘C’ with her left hand’s thumb and index finger, “‘A,’” she pointed to her left thumb, “and ‘S,’” she linked both her little fingers together. “L-U-C-A-S.” Ellie finger-spelt it out together, and she only needed to repeat it once more for him to remember it.

“Wait, you said you use your dominant hand; that is my right hand.” Lucas frowned.

“Yes. You do.” Ellie frowned too, but because she wasn’t following.

“But how come then that this is ‘C?’” He repeated the letter ‘C’ as she showed her.

“All right, well, there are a few exceptions,” Ellie admitted, smiling because she never thought of it that way.

“All right, let’s continue.” Lucas shifted again and adjusted his blanket.

“Okay, this is how you ask, ‘what’s your name.’ But bear that in mind that the sign language’s grammar is different, for example, you don’t say ‘what is your name,’ but ‘you name what,’” she explained. “So, ‘you,’” she pointed to him, “‘name,’” with her two fingers she pointed to her forehead and made an outwards motion, “‘what,’” she shook her index finger as if saying “no” to a child. “You-name-what,” she repeated together, and he copied her. “Yes, and the answer only differs that instead of ‘you,’ you say ‘my,’ which is just pointing to your chest,” she demonstrated.

“My-name-what,” he paused to think about how his name was. “L-U-C-A-S.”

“That’s it! But you don’t say ‘what’ when saying your name, you say ‘is.’ I know I said this,” she shook her index finger, “means ‘what.’”

“Okay.” He seemed already overwhelmed with information to Ellie.

“And don’t forget to _mouth_ what you sign. You never _say_ the words when you’re signing. Deaf and hard of hearing people lip-read, so it’s important not just to sign what you want to say, but to mouth it too. This is because one sign can mean more than one thing, like ‘greedy,’” she showed the sign for it which was her fist making a circular motion in front of her nose, “which can also mean ‘pig.’”

“Yeah. Okay.” Lucas nodded.

“Am I going too fast?”

“No, no, it’s okay. What else?” Lucas asked, shifting a bit to see her better.

They weren’t feeling very sleepy at this point, and they continued for about another hour. Slowly, it was starting to become harder to keep their eyes open. Or rather, for Ellie to keep her eyes open. They laid down onto their “beds,” but Lucas still had some questions, and Ellie was happy to answer them until she fell asleep ...

... in the middle of one of his questions.

***

Ellie was woken up by something poking her side. She opened her eyes and rubbed them because she could barely see. It turned out that it was still dark, but she only realised that after she rubbed her eyes out of their sockets.

She looked around, trying to make the forms out in the darkness. She heard George in the corner, still sleeping, and Lucas, next to her, also still asleep.

But something was still poking her side.

Ellie reached down and touched ... a knee? She shifted to the side to free herself from it, and then she saw that it was Lucas’s knee as he drew his leg up, that stuck out of his sleeping bag.

Scoffing and sighing, she lay back and looked at the ceiling.

That’s when she questioned this darkness. She checked the time and cursed her phone for being too bright even on the lowest brightness setting. It was seven in the morning. The sun should have been up by now, which, even if forecast, should give some light, but inside, it was as dark as if it was still before sunset.

Laying back on her back, she tried to go back to sleep, but couldn’t. These are times when all the things you did in your life – happy, sad, embarrassing or not – pop into your mind, and they just don’t let you be.

For her, that was remembering back the day she lost her parents ...

Then the day she lost Jason ...

Then the day she lost Jane ...

After these, Ellie couldn’t stop her tears from flowing down in rivers on her cheeks and soaking her hair and blanket. She never really gave herself time for grief, to mourn the death of her aunt, and it all came to her now. The thought of not having anybody, any family member now, tried to nest itself into her mind. However, she stopped it because she still had Jason. Wherever he was right now, if he was alive, Ellie had a family.

She spent some time lying awake but only until George woke up. When he saw her awake, he looked surprised but didn’t say anything. Elle wasn’t sure if he saw her face, that she cried, but if he did, he refrained himself from commenting on it.

“You wanna wake him up,” he nodded to Lucas a few minutes later, “so we can leave as soon as we can?”

“Hm ... His knee was in my side. Why don’t _you_ wake him up for a change?” She smiled.

George got what Ellie meant, walked over to Lucas and crouched down near him.

“Aaand, good morning, soldier! Rise and shine!” George said in a cold and monotone but _loud_ voice.

Lucas shot right up. He didn’t just stand up, he _shot up_. When he realised where he was and what was happening – or rather what wasn’t happening –, just a second after, he relaxed and growled at George.

“Thanks, Ellie. That really felt good,” George said, walking back to his stuff, _smiling_. Ellie couldn’t help but smile widely, both because of tasting sweet, sweet revenge, and because of Lucas’s reaction.

“Ellie,” Lucas said in a low and warning voice.

“Hm?”

He just shook his head. “Just you wait.”

“Ooo, is that a threat?” Ellie asked, grinning.

They had a little food left over from yesterday, those which they were instructed by George to put aside for today, so after a vague breakfast, they packed up and left before Lance and Susan woke up.

They had a little trouble with closing the door back in because the wind built the snow up against the door last night and since it opened inwards, all the snow flowed in. They tried to throw it back out and create a clearing in front of it, but it took some time.

So, when they were on their way for a while now, going through a once-green patch, fields, Ellie thought, she only noticed that Lucas wasn’t walking next to her anymore when it was too late.

 _Just_ as she turned around to see if he may have stopped for some reason, she got hit by something right in the face. She stumbled back and almost fell. Ellie heard Lucas’s laughter, but couldn’t see anything yet. She wiped the snow off her face and saw Lucas dying of laughter.

“Sorry, ah ... that wasn’t– I didn’t mean to hit you in the face, but it was funny!” While he was laughing, Ellie made a snowball too and threw it at him. It’s just her luck that it went past him, but he saw it from the corner of his eye. “Oh, you’re on!”

Ellie threw her bag off her back, and he did too, and that’s how he started a snowball fight in the middle of the fields.

“When you’re done,” they heard George who they both forgot about amongst having fun, “can we move on?”

Ellie dusted her gloves off, but the snow stuck to the thread in patches, and it soaked them. She was covered in snow from head to toe because on top of him showering her with snowballs, he managed to make her fall into the snow. _Twice_. So now, she was dusting the snow off her clothes while Lucas held her backpack as they followed the growling George.

“Wait, there is some snow left over here.”

“Where?” Ellie asked, and Lucas reached behind her head, but instead of helping her get rid of the snow, he shoved some down her coat, and as it melted right away, it soaked her hoodie. “You bast–! Argh!” Ellie tried to reach it, but of course, she couldn’t because one, it was inside her coat and two, it was melted, and she just felt the cold that was left from it when he shoved it down her coat.

Ellie turned to him and grabbed her backpack. But then she thought ...

... and shoved on him.

Lucas fell backwards into a shallow ditch filled with snow. The momentum caused the snow from under him to fly out and fall back down, covering him. Smirking like a real winner, Ellie put her backpack back on that she shook off when Lucas put the snow down her coat and walked after George who, during all this, didn’t even turn around.

***

This was by far the longest they have travelled so far, and since they didn’t want to stop to sleep and only have to walk just a couple of hours on the next day, they carried on much to Ellie’s dismay. They could tackle that, George seemed to think so at least.

The road up was patchy, so to say, because it was either calf-high snow or nothing, which they found strange at first. It was only after the three made it out of the greens and walked past a town where everyone was there. _Every_ house was occupied, everyone was chatting and calling to the other happily, probably working together to shovel all that snow out of the way.

If the road wasn’t patchy with snow, it was going up and down, twisting and turning with ditches and bumps under the snow which made it even more difficult not to continue trekking like George: grumpily. Ellie kept falling over or tripping and started to become very frustrated.

But Lucas held the spirit in her, asking her to sign to him different things like ‘snow’ and ‘winter’ and ‘Christmas’ and all the words he could think of, and it didn’t have to be relevant. He tried to copy her in signing these; half successful, half not, but Ellie liked his attitude. She wondered if Jason would like him too.

It was well into the dark, and they were still not there though they were close. Ellie’s phone didn’t ring after that incident, and they still couldn’t figure out what that was. She made sure every time she checked it that the GPS was turned off, and it was even on flight mode. She wasn’t paranoid, just careful. She didn’t know why in particular she didn’t want anyone to find her, she hasn’t done anything wrong ever, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Even though they weren’t there yet and were tired, they pushed on because checking the map regularly they knew it was only a matter of time before they noticed signs of Hayick, even in the pitch dark.

Ellie didn’t see where she was going at one point, and she fell over ...

... and right into a ditch, the same way Lucas did this morning, just face down.

Ellie heard him laugh behind her and even George let out a scoff and then a groan of annoyance, then, as she wanted to climb out, she felt hands on her arm and pulled her out. Ellie stepped backwards, going with the person pulling her out while she dusted herself clear of snow. She was spitting and shaking and shivering, but Lucas helped to get the snow off her coat as well as he could.

“Karma,” he mumbled. “You okay?” he asked, laughing after.

“Shut up.” Ellie shoved in him, trying to push him away playfully but she lost her balance and fell backwards. Lucas grabbed her arms and pulled her back. Her closeness made him feel all warm inside but clearing her throat, Ellie went ahead to get out of the ditch. Lucas helped her up, and silently, they followed George.

When Ellie thought this was it, that she couldn’t move an inch, they saw lights up ahead. Lights through windows and outside on the streets from streetlights and cars. They saw people cheery and lively, enjoying their freedom and the snow and little kids running around having snowball fights.

“We’re here,” Ellie breathed.

“We are,” George said, and Lucas nodded. “Let’s go. It’s really not far now.”

A few minutes, and they were in the town, walking among the tattered buildings that even now – at this time of the day – were getting fixed by people who called out to the people helping them. There were people, children, who were playing outside in the snow and only looked up from their joyful game when the three had passed them.

They didn’t know where to go, so they asked somebody that was walking down the street, not looking like they were in a hurry.

“Excuse me, sir,” George walked up to him. “We just came here. We’re looking for the refugee camp.”

“Oh, they still call it that? Oh well ...” He had a thick, local accent that made it a bit harder to understand what he was saying both because of his pronunciation and because they were tired. “Yes.” He turned around and pointed the way from where he came. “You see that tall building?” A towering white building with lots of windows and a flag on top with a single star on it. “That’s the Star Hotel.” He turned back to them. “You need to sign in, and then you’ll get a room. There is no fee to pay.” He warned them.

“Thank you,” Ellie said instead of George, and they walked over to the hotel as fast as they could. Strangely, now that the road was clear of calf-high snow, it made her even more sleepy than walking in the deep snow. Her eyelids were getting heavy and closed for seconds, and she only realised she closed them when she walked into Lucas. After the third time it happened, he shook her, holding her by the shoulders to wake her up. In the end, both chuckled.

They stepped through a revolving door, and they had to start to take off their winter coats because they found it _hot_ in there. A woman sat behind the reception along with a young guy who was about to leave and passed them on his way out. They approached the woman, unzipping their coats and taking off their hats.

“Hello!” she said cheerily and with a lighter accent. “How can I help you?”

“This is the Star Hotel, right?” George asked, but they knew it was, and she also knew it was. “They told us we could have a room here. We just came from down south,” he explained.

“Yes, yes, of course. We only have one double room available here. Otherwise, we have another building across the town,” the woman said in a kind and calm voice, looking at the screen, then she looked up at them. “Would you like to have it?”

Ellie looked at the boys. If it’s a double room, it would mean one of them they would have to say goodbye to. Before she or Lucas could decide anything, George spoke up.

“They will,” he said nodding to Lucas and Ellie.

“Geor–”

“Don’t,” he cut in. “I’m not taking the room with him, and you shouldn’t have to share a room with a dusty old man who snores,” he said. “You two take it, and I’ll take whichever they give me in that other building.”

“Are you sure?” Lucas looked past Ellie to look at him.

“Yes.” He turned to the woman. “Give it to them two, and I’ll find my way to the other building.”

“We have a shuttle bus going there in ... a few minutes.” She looked at the screen then back up.

“Excellent,” he patted the counter and turned to look at them.

Ellie couldn’t hold it in. “I’m going to miss you,” She stepped to him and hugged him. “Thank you for everything you have done for me,” she said into his chest.

Ellie felt him patting her back, but he didn’t say a word. She let him go and held her tears back. That would’ve been the last thing he would’ve wanted, for her to cry about ‘senseless’ things. But she saw that his eyes weren’t fully tear-free either, though the stern look he always had on his face hid it well had she not been standing right in front of him.

“Okay, go, then. I don’t want you missing your bus,” Ellie said, forcing a smile on her face.

He nodded and waving to Lucas – he nodded in response –, George went out through the revolving door.

“It has separate beds, right?” Lucas leaned on the counter. “The room.”

“Should do. If not, you can make it into two separate beds by bringing in a camping bed,” the woman said, her eyes flipping between the screen and Lucas.

“We’ll manage.” He nodded, and there was something thankful in his voice that Ellie didn’t know where to place.

“All right,” the woman sighed, and with one more glance to the screen, and she reached behind her and opened the little door that hid the keys – more like the key since it was the last one. “Room fifty-three.”

“Thank you,” Ellie grabbed the key from her hand and headed for the stairs.

“Take the stairs if you want,” Lucas spoke from somewhere beside her, and she searched for him as he continued. “I’m going to take the lift.”

“Well if I’d have known there is a lift, I’d have taken it too,” she added, but Lucas just extended his arms towards the lift which was so noticeable that you couldn’t have missed it. “Shut up.” The elevator dinged, and they stepped in.

“Uhm ... do you know which floor?” Lucas asked, staring at the panel after the woman left the lift.

“No,” Ellie replied. “Just press one, and we’ll see.”

“Okay,” he shrugged and pressed number three.

“What are you doing?” Ellie asked as the lift began to move upwards.

“You said to press a button.” He lifted his hands in defence.

“I said ‘press one.’ As in the number one.” Ellie pointed to it. “Idiot.” She added murmuring.

“All right.” Lucas pretended to be offended and crossed his arms, but the motion made his bag slide down his shoulders since it was only on one of his shoulders. This made Ellie laugh after a few seconds, and Lucas gave in too.

The lift dinged, and they stepped out.

Deciding to look around before they moved to a different floor, the first door they saw was 41, so they started walking down the long and narrow corridor until they found their room. After finding room fifty-three, Lucas opened the door. The first thing they saw was the window. At least that’s what Ellie saw first.

It looked over the city, and it was so mesmerising that dropping her bag along the wall on the short hallway, she went over to it and just gazed out at the city.

Lucas, of course, threw himself on one of the beds and let out a relaxed sigh. Ellie rolled her eyes and checked the bathroom out.

“I think I’m going to take a shower. Maybe even a bath,” she said while she went to retrieve her bag. Putting it on the bed to fish her things out, Lucas sat up.

“Fine by me,” he said while watching her. He knew she could see him watching her, but he ... he was just taking her in. Her hair tucked behind her ear, and the focused expression on her face, even her weariness from the journey that started way before his. 

“See anything interesting?” Ellie asked, looking up at him, catching him have the tiniest of smiles on his face.

He shook his head, looking down and let one of his legs down on the side of the bed. “Luckily, there are two beds.” He rambled, patting them. “Ooo, chocolate.” He pretended only to notice it now and be occupied by it to avoid the awkward situation – but this just made it more awkward.

Ellie scoffed, smiling and looking down and said, “okay.” Grabbing the towel that was on top of the bed, folded neatly, she walked into the bathroom.

She hadn’t realised how much she ached for a cleansing bath, only when she stepped in. Submerging herself underwater for as long as she could, she enjoyed the water on her skin. She freed herself of the dirt that stuck to her during the journey like tar.

When she finished – she lost track of time, but it could have easily been an hour or more –, she debated putting the white robe on that hung on the back of the door. Of course, she had clothes to sleep in, but she thought it would be extra warmth. Deciding against it, when she went back into the room, Lucas was laying on the bed, reading a brochure.

“Did you know we can only stay one night for free?” He looked at her. Maybe for longer than he wanted to before continuing. Ellie, however, was aware of him staring because from the corner of her eye, she noticed. “Uhm ... also,” he continued, “we get one day’s meal for free, but it says that if we stay longer, we’d have to pay.” He looked up at her again.

“That’s not a problem.” She turned to him having finished putting her stuff away. “I’ve got money left, apart from the one you wanted to steal,” she said, and he dropped his hand into his lap and looked at her, annoyed.

“I’m never going to live that down, am I?”

“Nope. Let me see.” She lay on the bed next to him and grabbed the brochure.

He let her have it and stood up. “I’m going to take a shower too. I moved your bag. It’s over there.” He pointed next to the desk. Ellie looked up, panic set in her eyes, but before she could continue, Lucas did, “And no, I did not take anything,” he added.

Ellie shook her head, smiling. “I didn’t say anything.”

“No, but your face did.” He said, feeling a bit hurt and closed the bathroom door.

Ellie put the brochure down, thinking about his expression just before he closed the door, feeling guilty of still not trusting him. She debated on going over to her bag and checking it, but she just lied down and looked at the ceiling.

She couldn’t believe they were here. They were in Hayick, in the camp! They walked across the country just under two weeks. _“Two weeks ago, ... no!”_ She stopped herself from thinking about it, and only about what was ahead.

And that was rescuing Jason.


	9. SEVEN

Even though Ellie didn’t remember falling asleep, she did remember that she was on the bed and not on the floor.

Like she was now.

With both her pillow and duvet.

She sat up and looked around, confused. She saw the pulled-in curtains, and that Lucas was asleep because she heard him from the bed next to her. The lights were off, and no light came in through the heavy curtains. Not even from the corridor.

Ellie put her duvet and pillow back on the bed and went into the bathroom. She decided against turning the light on since she knew it’s just going to hurt her eyes, and she also didn’t want to wake Lucas up.

So, in the dark, Ellie washed her face, which she didn’t need to see how sleepy and worn it looked. She felt it. She got ready and walking out of the bathroom, she noticed the curtains apart, and Lucas sitting on the bed against the headboard.

“How was the floor?” he asked, with a smirk sitting on his lips.

“What?”

He laughed. “Last night you woke up, well, still half-asleep, you told me the bed was too soft, so you took your pillow and duvet and moved yourself on the floor.”

“Oh, my God!” Ellie covered her face, laughing, embarrassed.

“I tried to talk you out of it, but you went back to sleep.”

“All right, uhm ... Let’s forget about this for now,” she started. “What’s next?”

“Well ...” He shrugged. “What do you want to do? After all, this is _your_ adventure.”

“I wouldn’t call it an adventure,” Ellie said flatly, approaching her bag to start to get her clothes out.

“Ri-i-ight.” He elongated the word. “Then how about we enjoy ourselves while we stay here?” Ellie was confused because she didn’t understand the meaning behind his words, but when she wanted to point it out, he continued. “Let’s see what we have in this city.” He stood up and grabbed his shirt from on top of his bag and put it on. Ellie tried not to stare when she noticed it both when she woke up and now that he was not wearing one.

“Uhm ... okay,” she said, looking back at her bag.

“Let’s ask around.” He walked past her on his way to the bathroom.

“Lucas,” she called after him, to which he stopped and turned around. “We can’t stay here for long. I don’t want to spend all my money on staying here.”

Lucas didn’t answer, just went into the bathroom. A few moments later, he came out with his hair wet.

“Today’s free,” he said.

“I know, but I still don’t have enough money for us to just ... linger around here,” she motioned around. “Also, I’m not going to waste time getting comfortable when I need to find my brother!”

“All right, but you can let yourself have today.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “You deserve a day for yourself.”

Ellie let out a sigh. “Fine. Let’s see what we have in this city.” She echoed.

“Excellent choice.” His broad smile made her smile a bit too.

Putting on their outdoor clothes, they went out of the hotel and walked around the town, looking at the shops. While Lucas wanted to go into almost every one of them, especially the pubs, Ellie stopped him and dragged him along. Eventually, they ended up at a shopping centre with a market in the middle of the square. She did buy some hot drinks for them – one thing she agreed with Lucas to buy – and looked around in the shopping centre.

Ellie knew Lucas needed a new pair of gloves since his current ones ripped, and she needed a new pair of shoes, preferably one that was a bit more waterproof. Or more suitable for the terrain. Or both.

Of course, since she didn’t wish to go with Lucas to shop for him, Ellie took some money out for him to spend, as well as for herself. Looking at her balance, she was pleasantly surprised that she had more than enough for them to last, but they still needed to be careful.

Lucas ended up buying a new pair of gloves, a warmer hat and a coat along with some more essentials for him. For herself, Ellie purchased a new pair of boots that were more suitable for anything winter-related in her opinion, new pants and also some other things.

Going back to their room, after they asked for some directions, Ellie assessed the contents of her bag, and put them into two piles; one was which she needed, the other which she didn’t. The second pile wasn’t much, just those things that she knew she didn’t need, small things, but things that were taking up space. She just wanted to make her bag lighter for whatever she had to go through next.

Also, Ellie put the unsuitable shoes of hers in the second pile, and she put those in one of the shopping bags she got from the shops. She planned to give it away, since she didn’t need it, and throwing it away would be such a waste.

Ellie advised Lucas to do the same or something similar since he had a smaller bag than she did, and then he whipped out a bag like Ellie had, from one of the shopping bags.

“All right. I did not see that one coming.” She nodded. Lucas chuckled.

Ellie put the bag to give away by the door and sat in the chair by the desk.

Lucas saw her expression as she sat down, and it was one he didn’t like to see on her face. “What’s up?” he asked, glancing up as he was putting his stuff into his new bag.

“I don’t know.” Ellie shrugged. “I wanna do something.”

“Let’s go downstairs and see if they still have something to eat.” He suggested and stopped packing. Walking over to her, he reached for her hand and pulled her after him.

“Okay, okay. I can walk on my own. What’s with the speed?”

“I realised I was hungry as soon as I thought of food.” He was right. She was hungry too; she just hadn’t noticed until he mentioned it.

Stepping into the cafeteria, they smelled the food, and their stomachs grumbled. They stood in the line and took something to eat and arriving at the till to pay the woman behind it asked, “Do you have your pass?”

“Our what, sorry?” Lucas frowned as he asked back.

“Your pass. When did you arrive?” she added, slightly frowning too, thinking.

“Last night,” Ellie added, looking at Lucas questioningly.

“All right,” she nodded to the side, letting them go.

“What pass?” Ellie asked Lucas when they were away from the woman.

“I don’t know.” He shrugged, honestly not knowing, and they went to look for a free table.

***

“Let’s go then. Please!” Lucas pleaded.

“I don’t do pubs,” Ellie said for the tenth time, but he was hovering around her, pleading like a child for them to go out and have a ‘fun night’.

“Bullshit.” He threw his arms in the air. “Don’t tell me you never had a drink.”

“I have had a drink.” Ellie looked at him, disbelieving that he assumed this.

“You’re not the clubbing-and-cocktails type, are you?” he asked, cautiously.

“No.” She shook her head. “I’m not any drinks type.”

He sat down. “Fine, you don’t have to drink, but just come. Please!”

“You’re not going to stop,” she stated, knowingly.

“Nope.” He shook his head.

“I’ll go,” Ellie said after another sigh. “If–”

“Yes!” He jumped up, not hearing her “if.”

“If,” she said louder, and he calmed down to listen. “If we can leave tomorrow.”

“But not in the morning,” he argued.

“Why?”

“Because.” He shrugged. “That’s my argument. I’ll agree with leaving tomorrow if you come with me, but I don’t want to leave in the morning.”

“You can’t argue two things!”

“Whatever.” He waved dismissively but smiling.

Ellie let out a long sigh. “Fine. We can go out, but we’ll leave tomorrow before noon. Is that all right?”

“Perfect,” he said, looking at her, measuring her up, thinking.

“I’m not changing.” Ellie stood up. “Let’s go, then.” She grabbed her coat and threw his to him. Shrugging, Lucas followed her, and stepping out in the cold, she followed him to wherever he wanted to go.

He saw a place that wasn’t too packed; only a few people lingering in there.

After they arrived at the bar and waited for their turn to order, Lucas ordered something for himself, and then the bartender looked at her.

Lucas ordered for her. “She’ll have a,” whatever he said. Ellie had no idea what that was; her knowledge of drinks didn’t exceed wine, beer, liquor, whiskey and vodka.

“Can I see your I.D.-s?” he asked.

“Shit,” Lucas muttered, while he was getting his wallet out. Ellie had hers in her coat pocket and handed it to the man who handed it back a few seconds later. He checked Lucas’s too, then nodded and said the price.

“You realise you’re paying,” Ellie said, leaning closer, to talk over the chatter and the quiet but audible music.

“Figured,” he replied. He paid for the drinks and thanked the bartender when he put them down on the counter. “Bottom’s up.”

Ellie took her drink and frowned when she smelled it. “What _is_ this?”

“Just drink it. It tastes better than it smells, I promise.”

“O-kay,” Ellie said hesitantly and tasted the drink. Her eyes lit up, and at first, she looked up at Lucas but then away, not wanting to give away that she liked the drink. Lucas ordered her another one – and something for himself too – after they both finished.

They were halfway down their second drinks, already feeling happier than when they stepped in; when a group of guys came in, laughing, apparently having had a couple already. Ellie was having a good time with Lucas, he was telling her about himself before they took him, and in return, Ellie did too. Hers wasn’t as exciting as Lucas’s was, but he didn’t show boredom which she took as a good sign.

As the bartender went up to them to get their order, they started talking at the same time. Then one of them slammed his hand on the counter – non-violently, just loudly – and said,

“Gie us a round of yer finest ale. We’re celebratin’!” His accent was so thick, Ellie had a hard time understanding him; though it might have had something to with the almost empty glass in her hand.

“Aye!” his mates cheered.

When they got their drinks, they cheered again and downed it in one go. Ellie was looking at them, agape, scoffing while smiling. Their happiness was so contagious, and she didn’t even know what they were celebrating.

They were chatting and since they were the only other ones sitting at the bar that somehow, Ellie and Lucas got involved in their conversation too. Starting with the fact that they felt the need to point out that the two weren’t from around here.

“So, where’re ye from then?”

This sentence, to Ellie, sounded something like, ‘swherryafrahmden’ but Lucas understood and answered for her.

“She’s from Shellton.”

“Where’s ‘at?” One asked.

“Down south,” She said, piecing together the conversation.

“An’ ye?” he asked Lucas.

“Born in Don but moved to Manter when I was a teen.” He said with a big gulp to finish his third drink. Ellie finished her third one before they pointed out the fact that they’re not local.

“Ye look like yer still a teen,” one of them said, and they all laughed. Ellie saw Lucas smile, too, but it wasn’t genuine. She put a hand on his shoulder and smiled encouragingly.

“So, what are you celebrating anyway?” she asked, preventing Lucas from a comeback, whatever and however good or bad it may have been.

“Our leave to join the army.”

“You’re joining the army?” Lucas asked, surprised.

“Aye,” the one with the thickest accent said. “We are gonnae an island.”

“You’re going to an island?” Lucas asked, laughing at first, but then he put down the drink he just ordered and looked at them surprised. Ellie didn’t get what he picked up on right away yet and caused him to look surprised.

“Aye.”

“Do you know the name?”

He shrugged. “No. ‘Twas somethin’ ‘island.’”

“The Lonely Island?” Lucas asked, and she almost spat her newly ordered drink back into the glass when she heard it.

“Aye. ‘at’s it!”

“Why are you going there?” he asked.

“We got sent there.” He shrugged. “We cannae wait!” he said, and they cheered again.

“What a coincidence,” Ellie started with a big smile on her face when they calmed down. “that’s where we’re going as well.”

“Ellie,” Lucas whispered and squeezed her knee to warn her not to continue.

“What fur?”

“Yer a soldier too?”

“Ye dinnae look like a soldier.”

“I’m n–” Lucas squeezed her knee again to shut her up, and it worked, and so he cut in.

“We’re just visiting.”

They all hummed and chatted with each other, and that was Lucas’s chance to turn to her and say, “I don’t think it was a good idea telling them we’re going there too! You don’t know who they are.”

“They’re local. You can hear it! You can’t just make up an accent like that! Besides, they don’t have the kidnapping up here so they wouldn’t know about that.” It took her some time to make this sentence up, and luckily, the others were talking among themselves during their whispering.

“And they are being sent to the Island.” Lucas shook his head. “I don’t believe that. Can you imagine what would happen, then?”

“No, and I don’t want to.”

“Is somethin’ wrong?” One asked.

“Nah, mate, everything’s fine.” Lucas put a smile on and lifted his drink. They did too, and for a while they stayed there, talking about things, but for her, it was mainly trying to understand a word they said which was getting harder.

When the bartender said it was closing time, they grabbed their stuff and left, helping each other not fall, laughing. They weren’t far from the hotel, at one point she turned Lucas, “Do you think they’ll let us in?” she asked, whispering, though she wasn’t sure why.

“I think so. We have our stuff in there,” Lucas said, sounding serious, and Ellie laughed.

They supported each other to the hotel and tried to be as quiet as they could be, shushing each other regularly and walking as straight as they could.

“I got the key here somewhere,” Lucas said, shoulder-deep in his pocket.

“Hurry up. I need to pee!” Ellie said, rocking and looking around.

“Okay! Okay!” He got it out, but then he dropped it. It took a minute for him to open the door, but when it was open, Ellie darted in and into the bathroom. She almost fell asleep on the toilet was it not for her head falling to the side and her almost falling off it. She had to laugh, though she tried to do it quietly.

When she was ready and went out, she saw Lucas face-down on the bed, on top of the cover, asleep. Ellie hadn’t thought of tomorrow, it didn’t cross her mind since before they left, but it should have. What a terrible headache she will have tomorrow, but right now, she had no idea.

***

When Ellie woke up, she knew she was awake but couldn’t open her eyes because of her splitting headache.

“You up yet?” Lucas asked from somewhere in front of her.

“Quieter, please!” she frowned, and Lucas chuckled. Ellie sat up and walked to the bathroom, holding onto the wall, and got herself ready in there. Of course, she tried not to look in the mirror, in case she saw something resembling her that she wouldn’t have liked.

A minute or two later she was out of there, to get her clothes and go back to change. When she did that, she went back out, holding her head.

“Here.” Lucas extended a packet of pills towards her and her bottle, which had some water left in it. She took one pill and swallowed it with the water. “Thanks.” She gave the rest back to Lucas.

“So ... Are you ready to go?” he asked with a smirk.

“Oh, shut up! This is _your_ fault.”

“How is it my f–”

“Don’t even–” She put her hand up, silencing him. He was still smiling. “Don’t even try.” She sighed and sat down on the bed. “We need to plan the route there.”

She got her map out of her bag, and as she did, she saw her phone. She thought about putting it on charge, but she saw that another blocked number called her. She dismissed it and connected it to the charger.

“The blocked number called me again,” she said, looking at the map now.

“When?”

“Sometime last night.” She nodded back to the device. “I just saw it.”

“Huh ...”

“Listen,” she started and pointed to the map. “We can go along this road. This basically leads us to the port where we can catch a boat – that is if there is any – and go to the Island.”

He walked over and looked at the route she marked with her finger. “We’d need a car,” he muttered, but she heard him.

“No, we wouldn’t! We tracked all the way up _here_ without one.”

“And have you thought about getting one _during_ it?”

“No,” she said unsurely.

“It would be faster. And we only could go until–” Lucas looked at the map, “–here. Where we’d have to get onto a boat.”

“But there aren’t that many cars going around, are there? We’d stand out!” she argued.

He lifted his eyebrow. “Not if we take a camo one.”

“A what? Of all the cars, you want to steal a _military vehicle_?” she asked, shocked.

“No! I saw one around, and I thought it was abandoned, and maybe we could check it out and see if it is. If yes, we take it, if not, well ... We will see then how to continue.”

“We’re _not_ stealing a car, Lucas!” She stood up, folded the map back and put it back to its place. “Not unless we _absolutely_ have to,” she added. That seemed to satisfy him because, with a grin, he shut up and remained silent while they were packing. Ellie went down ahead and paid for their night and waited for Lucas to come down. When he wasn’t down in five minutes, she went after him, but she didn’t get far because she ran into him on the stairs.

“Where were you? I was waiting.”

“I ran into a man upstairs, and I asked about the car. He said he never saw anyone approach it since they parked here and when I asked who parked it there, the man said he doesn’t know. He said that he just noticed it one morning not long ago. I mean,” Lucas scratched his head, “I think that was what he said.”

Ellie nodded, understanding what he was implying. “Yeah, these people and their accent is ...”

“... a challenge, yes, but, come on. Let’s go.” He went past her.

“All right.” She said after him, stunned by his sudden enthusiasm.

They walked up to the vehicle parked on the opposite side, and at first, they were just looking at it.

“Ellie,” Lucas started, and she looked at him. “Are you _sure_ you wanna do this? Are you _sure_ you wanna go _there_?” He nodded his head to the side, and though it may not have been towards the general direction of the Island, she understood. And she didn’t like him implying this.

So, she threw her arms in the air and looked away, annoyed and angry. “I knew it. I _knew_ it!” She looked back at him. “I knew y– I was waiting for you to ask that or something similar!” He stepped over to her, ready to defend himself, but she didn’t let him. “You want to back out _now_? You know what? Go ahead! _Stay_ , if you want!” She began to turn away from him. “ _I_ won’t! I have my brother to find, and I won’t have y–”

He did it quickly.

Lucas grabbed her hand with one of his and her face with his other and kissed her to shut her up. But it wasn’t a violent kiss, it was a soft, ‘calm down already’ type of kiss. His hand, which was holding her wrist, moved up to her neck and leaned away. She couldn’t say a word; he made her forget her thought line. She was just looking into his eyes, those beautifully glistening eyes in the sunlight, and just tried to breathe.

This was her first-ever kiss. But Lucas didn’t need to know that otherwise, it would just make his ego grow.

Finally, she looked down, embarrassed that he saw into her in this silence, and he took a tiny step away and dropped his hands.

“It was worth a shot,” he started in a low but unsteady voice. If Ellie hadn’t thought better, she’d have said this was his first kiss too. “Asking it, I mean. In case– In case you changed your mind and–”

She shook her head, scoffing while smiling. “Just get in the car.”

He stopped and cleared his throat and stepped to the driver’s seat, and she went to the other side.

“You can drive, though, right?” she asked, lifting her eyebrow.

“Not really,” he said, opened the door, got in the car then shut the door. Lifting a brown on the fact that the door was just open, Ellie remained silent. Then taking a deep breath while muttering “oh, boy,” Ellie sat in the car. “I mean,” Lucas buckled in, “my dad started sort of teaching me, showing me what is what and letting me drive down the driveway and once in an empty parking lot, but I never learnt to drive. And they didn’t teach us there. Yet.”

“Well, then you know more than I do because all I know is the sign that says ‘stop’ means stop.”

“Wow, I think you’d pass with flying colours,” he said sarcastically.

“Right? Thanks.” She said, flipping her hair back theatrically.

“Now, let’s look for a key since the door was open, if not, we just hotwire it.”

“Right.” She looked in the compartments in front of her while he looked in the compartments in the middle and on the flip-down sun-blocker things.

Ellie never really travelled in a car. Neither her parents nor Jane had one.

They ended up not finding the key, so Lucas did something he called ‘hotwiring’ and climbing under the steering wheel, somehow, he started the car. He reversed out from the parking lot, and though she didn’t see it, she felt the nearby people’s eyes on them.

It’s not every day you see two young people steal a military vehicle.


	10. Bonus #1

As the man was standing by the window, looking out through the curtain, he spotted the two figures exit the building. As he watched them approach the vehicle, he lifted his phone to his ear.

 _“Yes?”_ The man on the other side said. _“Report.”_

“He is approaching the vehicle,” the man said as he watched the two figures converse passionately about something.

_“Is this positive?”_

“Yes, sir, I’ve got my eyes on him at this moment.”

_“And is it active?”_

“Yes, sir. They won’t even know it’s there. And even if they do, they won’t suspect a thing.” As he finished, he watched as the figures got closer together and kissed. When he rolled his eyes, the captain spoke up.

_“‘They?’”_

“Yes, sir, he has a partner. Jason Ashton’s sister.”

_“Are you positive about this? Are you positive she is an Ashton?”_

“Positive. Multiple times we tried her phone, and multiple times it rang, giving us her location. I assume she was with him the whole time.” The man watched them get in the car. “They are in the car.”

_“Excellent. Did they suspect a thing about you?”_

“No, sir, but I did converse with him at one point though he thought nothing of it afterwards.”

_“Are you sure he didn’t?”_

“Yes, sir. I played my role well.” The man turned away from the window and walked over to his bag, picking it up. “The plan is in motion. On my way to the meeting point.”

_“Excellent work, Lieutenant. I hope I am not wasting a second chance on you.”_

“No, sir. Lucas Night and Ellie Ashton will be on the Lonely Island by tonight.” He ended the call as he locked his door.

Walking down to the reception, he handed the lovely receptionist his key, and with a smile, he exited the building. Approaching his car, he put his bag in the back seat and before sitting behind the wheel, he looked back at the building he exited from and the starred flag on the roof.

Sitting in the car, he turned the engine on and drove in the direction the two others drove to, but turned down the first turn, getting ahead of them and speeding to the meeting point. He was excited. After regretting his choices to help those soldiers escape, he went back to ask to be taken back. He was given the condition to bring all those back whom he helped to escape, and he can come back.

And Lucas was the last one on his list.


	11. EIGHT

Ellie cried out when they drove over another bump. 

“I don’t think it’s a good idea anymore,” she whined on such a high note that she surprised herself and frowned as soon as she finished.

The car wasn’t the _most_ comfortable, and they still had quite a distance ahead of them. 

“We can’t turn back _now_!” Lucas protested, not taking his eyes off the snowy road. “After all, this whole thing was _your_ idea.” 

“No!” She raised her finger. “Not _this_ , not sealing a military car; to search for my brother. And you know this, and I know you’re just teasing me.” She sat back with her arms crossed over her chest. 

She didn’t see Lucas glance at her, smiling and in admiration because her emotions clouded her vision. But he didn’t mind. All he wondered was if she thought of _that_ too.

“This light is _bugging me_!” Ellie tapped on the flashing yellow dot on the dashboard after a few minutes of silence. This action did nothing, of course, just annoyed her more that it didn’t disappear. “What is that anyway?” she turned to Lucas. 

“I don’t know,” he glanced at it then back at the road. He tapped it as well, probably thinking the same as Ellie did, that it was just a malfunction, and by tapping – hitting – it, it would be “fixed”, like with those old TVs. “There is nothing wrong with the car, that must be something else. Are you buckled in?” 

“I am.” 

“Then, I really have no idea.” He shrugged. “We’ll check it out when we stop.” 

Ellie nodded briefly, and after a moment, she asked, “Can I turn the heating up a bit?” 

He glanced at the temperature, then nodded. Ellie turned it up by two degrees. They took their winter gear off, but it was still so cold in the car that the minimum heating just wasn’t enough for her. 

They just passed a town called Calile when they stopped. They stretched their legs out in the cold and ate some food that they still had left. 

“Do you want to drive?” Lucas asked her as they were about to sit back in, leaning on the car. 

“I can’t.” She shook her head. “I never learnt.” 

“I know. Come on. It’s not hard.” 

“I’d have to disagree. The past hour I jumped up and down in my seat like a yo-yo.” 

“Funny. Haha. Yeah. Blame the road’s bumpiness on _me_. Come on now. I’ll show you.” 

She walked over and sat in the driver’s seat. “Now, what?” 

“Now you put your right leg on the brake, the left one, yeah, that.” 

“What about my right leg?” 

“That rests. Now, this is an automatic car, so it’s easier than the manual my dad showed me how to drive on,” he started. “You press that button, that one by the wheel, yeah,” she pressed it and the car came alive. “Great. Now,” he ran around the car and sat in, “ _slowly_ lift your foot off the brake, and the car will start rolling forward.” 

“What? That makes no sense!” 

“It’s an automatic car. Of course, it makes no sense! Now, do it.” 

Ellie did as he told her, lifting her foot off the brake, and indeed, the car started to roll forward. 

“Hands on the wheel, quick, and foot on the gas.” 

She gave too much gas at first, and the car sped up, but she lifted her foot off a bit, and it slowed down. She turned the wheel just as little to straighten the car on the road, and she was driving! 

“I’m driving!” 

“You are– Just slowly! We’re not rushing anywhere.” 

“We kind of are.” 

“I know, but– Okay, turn right.” 

“Why ‘right?’” She looked at him. 

“Eyes on the road!” he raised his voice, not out of anger but out of fear. 

She looked back. “Why right?” she repeated, this time, looking ahead. 

“Because we need to go right,” he said. 

“You drive then,” she said and slowed down until they stopped. “It was fun, but I don’t want to drive all the way.” 

He was silent for a moment but then nodded. “Okay. Let’s swap back. Step on the clutch.” 

She started to feel around with her foot but didn’t find another pedal apart from the brake and gas. “Where is that?” She held her hair back and looked down, wondering if she’ll see it that way. 

“It’s a bit more up.” Lucas wanted to point, but he knew it would’ve been useless for one, Ellie wasn’t looking at him, and two, he could only have pointed in the general direction of the clutch, not at it. 

“Got it,” Ellie said and stepped on it, and Lucas put the car in parking mode with the stick. 

He got out of the car while she climbed over to Lucas’s former seat. He sat in the driver’s seat, and since the car was still on, he just put it in gear and turned the wheel right since they needed to turn right. Lucky, no one was on the road.

“How do you know where we’re going?” she asked some moments ago. 

“I checked the map before we checked out of the hotel.” 

“When?” she asked back. 

“Sometime last night.” He shrugged. “I woke up and couldn’t fall back to sleep.” 

“And you memorised it?” she asked, stunned. 

“Eh. Sort of.” He shrugged again. “Where is it, though?” 

She frowned and glanced around. “What?” 

“The map?” he shot back, rolling his eyes. 

“In my bag. Where it always is. In the side pocket.” She looked at him as if this was all new information to him, but she knew it wasn’t, but then she didn’t know why he asked. 

“Can you get it out? I need to double-check it.”

“Oh, and here I thought you memorised it.” She shot back, smirking as she turned around on her seat and reached for her bag on the back seat. She got in her lap and got the map out. 

“Let me see.” He extended a hand towards her. 

She pulled it away from him. “No. Eyes on the road.” She mimicked him. “I want to get to my brother alive. I can’t do that if I’m upside-down in a burning car because you looked down on a piece of paper, proving yourself right.”

He chuckled. “Kitten, I can drive on this empty road with one hand on the wheel, and one eye on the road without turning this vehicle upside-down. Your distrust is offending,” he added. 

“‘Kitten?’” she asked with her eyebrows through the roof of the car. 

He didn’t say anything. 

“And no, you focus on the road. Since it seems you can talk and drive, you can tell me what you’re looking for.” She started folding the map out. 

“Just tell me where we are, based on what you can see. It should be labelled on the map,” Lucas said, slowing down on purpose. 

Something started falling, rain or snow or both, and he needed to turn the windshield wipers on but on a low setting. 

“So, we passed this already. And this– We passed this as well.” Lucas frowned and glanced at her, but she was buried in the map and didn’t see. “We should be around here,” Ellie pointed on the map and turned it so he could see too. “We should get to an intersection soon. Then we need to turn right again. I think,” she added. 

“You _think_?” His voice shot higher than usual, but she pretended not to notice since he cleared his throat and repeated his question.

“Just drive,” she said. 

“I am.” 

“Then, turn right here.” She pointed slightly to the right, out the windshield, and with a huff, he looked around then turned. 

“All right.” She packed the map away after she told him the next few instructions. 

“I swear he looked like my Lieutenant,” Lucas said suddenly after a while. 

“Who did?” Ellie asked back. 

“The man telling me about the car.” Lucas shook his head. “Strange.” 

“Yes.” After a pause, she asked, “Do you mind if I snooze until we reach the next town?” she asked, already closing her eyes. She heard him hum and took that as a yes. 

***

She was asleep, though not deeply but deep enough when the car stopped, and it was just the blessed seatbelt that prevented her from headbutting the dashboard or flying out the windshield. 

“Lucas!” she shouted. When he didn’t answer and just turned the car off, she asked, “What is it? Why are you stopping?” 

He unbuckled himself. “Get out of the car!” 

“Why?” she asked but did as he told her. 

“Don’t argue; just do it!” He got out, grabbed their bags, and she followed. 

“Would you mind telling me what this is about?” she asked, grabbing her bag from him. He freaked her out very much with his paranoid behaviour. He started walking ahead, and when she wasn’t following him fast enough, he stepped back and grabbed her arm, pulling her after him. 

“Okay! Okay!” she called out and caught up to him. “But it would make it easier for me to run after you if I knew _why_ I was running.” 

“While you were sleeping, I checked the flashing light out,” he started. 

“And?” Ellie asked when he didn’t continue. 

“And ... I realised that it’s not part of the dashboard. Not originally,” he added, going down on the slight slope on our left, and into the bushes. “It has been installed separately.” 

“What are you saying?” she asked, panic growing in her. 

He stopped and held her by the shoulders, shaking her the tiniest bit. “It’s a tracker, Ellie! The flashing meant that it was active!” he said and let her go. 

“How do you know?” she asked, doubtful but panicking, picking up the pace after him. 

“Because I remembered we had to install them as one of our lessons.” He shook his head. “I’m so stupid! I don’t know how I didn’t realise it before. They are likely to be on their way now, after us because every time the car is turned on, the tracker is activated. Or maybe even when it’s not turned on,” he added quieter, but Ellie didn’t comment on it. 

Lucas looked around and ahead and around and ahead, repeatedly as they were walking, while hiding among the bushes. 

“So, what does this mean then?” she asked to clarify. 

“It means,” he stopped and turned around, “that they have been following us all along! They planted the car there and waited for _somebody_ to take it. But I think it was _aimed_ at us,” he added. 

“That’s _nonsense_! _Why_ would they do that?” 

“Because of _me_!” he shouted, voice filled with regret and sorry as he looked around and started pulling her after him again. “Because I escaped. I figured they were after me but–” 

“So, what now?” she asked a moment later after he didn’t finish his sentence. 

He stopped again and tried looking around, clearly searching for something, what in particular, she didn’t know. There wasn’t anything in sight, but she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or bad thing. 

They crossed the space between two shrubs, and they hid behind this one that continued on the other side. 

“We can wait here until they come, maybe wait them out and be on our way again,” Lucas said. 

“Lucas, wait!” He looked at her. “ _Why_ are we hiding? Isn’t our goal to get to the Island? Why not hitch a ride with them, then?” 

Lucas was silent, thinking. “What you’re saying makes sense ...” He paused, going back to his thought line. “What are you suggesting?” 

“I don’t know. But _not_ hiding in the bushes,” Ellie said. “Let’s just ... Let’s just go back and, I don’t know, wait for them?” she suggested unsurely. 

He was silent. 

“Lucas?” 

“I’d rather we just stayed here.” 

“Lucas, don’t you start on me again with your stupid paran–” 

“Ssshhh!” He shut her off by putting his hand on her mouth and pulling her down to a crouch with him because there was a low rumble from their right. Not from the ground, but from above. 

“Is that a helicopter?” she whispered when he let her go, loud enough for him to hear, but still quietly, though, for what reason was she whispering, she didn’t know. 

He nodded. 

She saw him mouth a second later, “we’re so screwed,” but she didn’t comment on it. She understood he was afraid of going back there, more than she was, since Ellie had no idea yet, of how it was, so she didn’t have anything to be afraid of in a way. She appreciated Lucas coming with her; she did, she just wished he wouldn’t be this afraid of whatever he is scared of. 

The helicopter landed further up from them, but they remained inside the bushes. They haven’t heard the people coming for another minute, but then, she saw Lucas deep in his thoughts. 

“There are six of them.” He whispered. “They will find us in _seconds_.” He was talking to himself, she knew it, but she wanted to calm him down, but she couldn’t find the right words, so she just stood next to him silently. 

“Tracks.” The voice seemed to be coming from everywhere. 

“They’re here,” Lucas whispered, scared, and again, more to himself than to Ellie. 

“You two go around,” someone spoke almost too quietly for Ellie to hear. “You two stay here. You and I are going through.” 

Lucas looked at her, and for a moment, she read sheer fear from his eyes. Still, it turned to determination quickly as he stepped in front of her, just seconds before the pair of them saw a person break through the bush. 

The man stopped with his officer behind him. 

“Oh, well, who do we have here?” The man lowered his gun and stepped forward. He was wearing camo clothes, and his short light brown hair was shaping his evil-looking face so much it gave Ellie shivers as she laid eyes on him. 

He was looking at Lucas. “Private Night.” 

“Captain Roghier,” Lucas said, disgusted as Ellie heard it, but she might have been wrong. 

“Who are you hiding behind you?” The captain asked, looking at her. 

She looked at the captain from behind Lucas, not really trying to hide, but honouring Lucas’s protectiveness; while neither of them spoke. They heard the two others the captain sent to go around, come from behind them. As she turned around as a reflex when she heard the rustling sound, it was just seconds before they broke through the bushes and pointed their guns at them. At her. 

“Lucas?” she whispered, becoming afraid herself. 

“I know,” he hissed through his teeth. 

“So, I guess at least _one of you_ has figured out why we’re here,” he nodded, and one of the officers who were closer to Ellie grabbed her and started to drag her out to the road. They did the same thing to Lucas, then the captain followed. 

They were near a pond, and the land seemed to stretch forever around them, though snow covered everything, and the lake shone darkly in contrast to it in the sunlight. 

“We got them,” the captain spoke into his comm in his ear. “Get the transport ready.” 

They didn’t hear a response, but there was probably one, because, in a second, he wasn’t looking past them, but at them, with that satisfied expression on his face. 

“Private Night, though I’m sure you were hoping that we would lift your punishment just because you ran away, well, I would hate to disappoint you,” he grinned, clearly not meaning his words at all. “As for your partner,” he stepped in front of Ellie, and she saw Lucas wanting to break free of the man holding him, wanting to stop the captain, “She’ll just have to come along. Or die here,” he added still grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

Ellie tried maintaining a straight face, though inside she was shaking like a leaf. And not just from the cold, from the fear that this man made her feel. 

Suddenly the understanding of the “why” of Lucas’s fear hit her. 

She glanced at him, panicked, held down, as the captain turned around to watch the helicopter land too near them – and she didn’t like Lucas’s expression. It was a mix between “I told you so” and “this was a horrible idea, it’s your fault.”

And he was right. 

But she would go through the deepest depths of hell for her brother if she had to and from this thought, she put her determined face on.


	12. NINE

As they escorted – pushed – them towards the helicopter, Ellie tried to glance at Lucas behind her, just to see how he was doing. Still, the man who was nudging her forward kept forcing her head back ahead without a word. Ellie did hear an occasional grunt from her captor as she was starting to annoy him with her disobedience. Still, in contrast to him, she _did_ care about her partners. 

The only thing she _could_ see when she was able to catch a glimpse of Lucas behind her, was when he was pushed forward and stumbled as well as she did right after that, for looking back. 

When they got to the helicopter, the men stepped in first, then Ellie. Since Lucas was right behind her, they seated him directly in front of Ellie – with an officer on either side of them. As soon as they were buckled in and ready to depart, the helicopter roared up and lifted off the ground. 

Since there was too much noise, and with the ear-protectors, on their ears, Ellie and Lucas couldn’t talk, they were just eyeing each other. Ellie knew, from the way he looked at her, that he asked her if she was all right, and she just nodded shortly, trying to smile. 

Then Lucas took his gloves off and surprised Ellie by remembering the sign for ‘sorry’ and ‘hope,’ from the time when he asked her. She smiled again and nodded, and he responded with a smile too. None of them noticed one soldier looking at them in the meanwhile, grimacing. 

***

After landing on a brownfield, that was once probably green and lush with grass, they were pulled out of the aircraft, and Ellie laid her eyes for the first time on the monstrosity that was the fortress, as Lucas called it. 

Captain Roghier stepped in front of them just when two of his minions pulled both their bags off them. 

“Hey, give that back!” Ellie stepped after her bag, but another stepped in front of her, with his hand in-between them, stopping Ellie from getting it back. Her eyes were shooting daggers at both of the men, especially the one who had her bag since now he unzipped it, looked inside, and zipped it shut. She remembered that luckily, she had put her necklace on this morning, so at least she had _that_ with her, but something that she would need back will be her phone. Not that she had much need for it so far ... She liked that she had the option to use it while she had it. 

“You will not need that inside,” the captain said, and Ellie turned back to face him upon hearing his voice. “Now, follow me!” He turned around mid-sentence and started walking. Not having any other choices, Ellie and Lucas followed the captain; his minions trailing behind the two of them, watching their every move. 

Since they were not personally escorting them, just sort of following them, Lucas and Ellie could walk next to each other freely, therefore talk in whispers too. 

“What should I expect?” Ellie asked, as quietly as she could, so the men behind them won’t hear her, but loud enough so that Lucas will. 

“ _Hell_ ,” he answered in an exaggerated tone. “And do not let them break you!” He looked at her, and she heard one of the men behind them pick up the pace. He stepped between Ellie and Lucas and pulled them further away from each other. 

They arrived at a door, a front door it seemed. After a nod from the captain towards it – perhaps a face recognition or a camera was there – with a _buzz_ and a _click_ , the door opened, sliding to the side, into the wall, letting them in. 

The first thing Ellie noticed was that inside everything was grey. 

The second thing she noticed was the smell. That kind of smell when you spent too much time in a small room then leave, and when you come back, you know you need to open the window. 

The third thing she noticed was that it was freakishly quiet. No dripping water, no chatter, no footsteps apart from theirs. 

A chill ran through Ellie’s body. 

They took the path on the left, not the one ahead, and followed the captain. Two officers trailed off from them and went on the path leading straight, with Ellie’s and Lucas’s bags. 

Ellie nudged Lucas, nodding behind them. “Where are they going?” 

“To drop our bags off,” Lucas whispered back. “When everyone came here, they collected all our personal belongings and stored it somewhere,” he finished. “Listen, they are likely to separate us any second now.” 

She looked at him, shocked, wanting to say something, but he squeezed her hand gently and continued. 

“Do _not_ let them break you! They _will_ try, believe me. You need to always remember _why_ you are here, okay? I will be here too, though in another wing because you will be with the new ones, and I will probably be with my old troop if not in Isolation.” 

Ellie was panicking now. She thought if he was with her, she could go through this easier, but now ... 

“You _will_ see me, but plea–” He suddenly stopped because the captain did too at an intersection. 

Ahead was a blue-ish grey coloured hallway, and to the right continued the grey. 

The captain, standing at the mouth of the blue-ish grey hallway, was slightly grinning, possibly having heard their conversation. From the remaining three officers, two of them stepped to the right and pulled Lucas with them. He looked back at the last moment, his face filled with worry. 

“Well, now comes the fun part,” the captain said as she was looking after Lucas. She looked at the captain now while trying to mask her fear and trying to figure out what the captain had just meant. 

He turned around with his back to her and started walking down the hallway. When she didn’t step right after him, the last remaining officer gave her a push. She was a hair’s breadth away from swinging her arm behind her, planning to hit him, but she guessed it would not be a great idea since, one, she can’t fight yet and two, he’ll possibly just hurt her even more. She could imagine that here, no one would do anything if they saw someone above her giving her, or anyone at her level, a beating. 

The captain stopped when they reached a corridor with a lot of doors on both sides. 

“These are the sleeping quarters for you and your troop. You will be sharing a room with nine other people. You will _not_ leave your room unless you are told to do so. You will _obey_ the rules of this quarter as well as the word of your commanding officers. Do you understand?” 

“Yes.” 

“Yes, _sir_.” The officer from behind her corrected her. 

“Yes, sir.” She corrected herself, hissing through her teeth. 

“Excellent. If you keep up the good work and will be obedient, you will not see what is behind the door down this corridor.” He pointed to the left, to a corridor that was slightly arching right as it went on. 

“Why, what’s down there?” Ellie made the mistake of asking while she was eyeing the path. 

The captain must have seen the officer’s face behind her, and that he wanted to reprimand her for this, because the captain just waved the man off and said, “I hope you will not have to find out. Let’s continue.” 

He walked down the hall to one of the doors at the end of the dead-ended corridor. 309. That was the number painted on the dark grey coloured metal door. The officer got a key out, opened the door, and they stepped in. 

Inside, to their left, she saw five-five metal beds opposite each other with a green and white duvet, and with a metal double-door wardrobe in-between them. There were no windows, and from that, Ellie has only now realised that she remembered finding it weird that the ground was going down at one point slightly. They were underground. 

Everything was so neat and clean in here, that if the captain didn’t just tell her that she will be with nine other people in here, she would have thought nobody was occupying these beds. 

“This bed is free.” The officer said, walking to the bed on their left and stopped at the second one from the door. “In here you can find everything you will need. You will keep this tidy, and make it look as it is now, always! There will be room inspections every day.

“Further instructions can be found in the handbook. Here are the keys for the room and for the locker. If you lose them ... well, that’s your problem.” He handed her two keys on a black lanyard. 

“You have five minutes to get changed and report back to me,” he added and left the room. Ellie only noticed now that the captain had left already. _“Maybe for the better,”_ she thought. 

“Great!” She mumbled and went to her locker and opened it. 

In there, there were three shelves, the top and the bottom overhanging to both sides, while the middle shelf was only on one side. 

On the bottom shelf was a pair of brown combat boots, socks, and a backpack next to them. In the middle half-shelf, neatly folded, was a windproof jacket, seemingly a thermal top, a couple t-shirts and a couple trousers. Hanging next to the half-shelf were two sets of camo jackets, two sets of camo shirts and a dress shirt. On the top shelf was the helmet, and a thick booklet. There was a black bag next to them as well, but Ellie didn’t have time to look inside it now. After all, she only had about three and a half minutes left to change. 

As she changed, she left her clothes in the locker and was ready to put the jacket on when the officer opened the door, and she stopped putting the jacket on half-way on the right arm. 

At first, he had a smug smile on his face, expecting her to be not fully clothed so he could mock her, but then all that faded when he saw her not only dressed but ready except an arm. 

“Fix your shirt and trousers, Private!” he shouted instead. 

She tucked her shirt in neater, and her trousers into her boots then put her jacket on fully and did the buttons. Ellie was surprised the officer had corrected her. She thought he’d just come in, bark something and leave, expecting her to follow him. Well ... that _is_ what happened after because he waved her to follow, and left the room without looking back if she did. 

They went back the way they came, all the way to the front door, where they turned down the other path leading straight on and went to the end of the hallway and in through the first door on the right. She could see in their haste that on the door, with the same paint and style as on her door, ‘Admin’ was written. 

“Officer Lamy. Who’s this?” The man behind the desk ahead of them looked up, and the one behind the table by the door did too. 

“Private Ashton, sir. She needs her paperwork.” Ellie looked at him, shocked when he said her name. She wondered how they knew.

With a groan, the man stood up and stepped to the metal filing cabinet. He looked through the papers in the top drawer then pulled out a couple of documents and moved onto the second drawer. “Fill in and sign these.” 

“What are these?” Ellie asked as she was eyeing the pen, then looked up to the man. 

He didn’t answer at first, just glanced at the officer behind her. “These are your details and your contract.” 

“I thought you had everything on me since he knew my last name without me having needed to tell him.” She nodded behind her, referring to Officer Lamy. 

“Private Ashton, learn to keep your fucking mouth shut, and do what the men above you tell you to do!” Officer Lamy barked. 

She took a deep breath and sat down in one of the chairs in front of the man’s desk and took the pen into her hand. She filled out the multiple page form which asked for her personal details, then signed her name at the bottom and moved onto the other sheet, which was just writing. She guessed that was the contract. As she started reading it, someone cleared their throats. 

“Today, Private!” 

She wasn’t going to sign it without reading it first, but apparently, someone didn’t want that in case– in case of what? In case she caught something they didn’t keep their word up to, and she could do something? Hah! As if she could ... 

So, she scanned through it, selecting what she thought the main words and sentences to read, then flipped to the last page and scribbled her name on the line. 

Putting the pen down, saying nothing, in case that would have been another wrong thing, she looked at the man behind the desk. 

“Thank you. You’re dismissed.” He said, and so Ellie stood up and followed Officer Lamy.

“You will be joining your troop today. They are still in PT – and they will be if they continue like this,” she guessed that was more of a side note to himself than directed to her. “You will meet your PTI today, and you will obey his every word. He and every one of us who is above you all can punish you for disobedience. Am I understood?” He was walking fast, maybe a little too fast for Ellie for she answered out of breath.

“Yes, sir.” 

“Excellent.” 

Not looking where they were going, she was hoping she would find her way back to her quarters, if not, then she’d just tag along to the other members of her troop. 

He opened the double doors to the indoor gym as she saw it after they stepped in. It would have been huge if it was not for the massive and heavy, plastic-looking curtain separating one part from the other in the middle of the hall. 

There were about twenty-five to thirty people in there, doing some exercises that the person shouting at them set out. 

They walked up to him, and after he finished the shouting, he looked at Officer Lamy, then at her, and gave her an “I’ll break you” look. At least that’s what she read from his eyes. 

“And you are?” he asked her. 

“Ellie Ashton,” she said. 

“Private Ashton has only joined us now, due to a ...” Officer Lamy glanced at her, “... admin error, but she is here now, eager to start.” 

_“Really?”_

“Private Ashton, this is Corporal Higgins, your PTI,” he spoke to her now. “I’ll leave you to it,” he finished and turned away to leave. 

“Take your jacket off, you don’t need it now, and join the others through the course. _Now!_ ” he shouted, and as quick as Ellie could, she did as he told her.

***

After some excruciating hours of following the corporal’s shouts, they had a break which Ellie thought was dinner by looking at the clock on the gym wall _waaay_ above them, since the ceiling was at least about four metres high up. The clock said it was five-thirty in the evening. Ellie followed the others, led by Corporal Higgins; hanging about at the end of the line. 

They did end up going to their quarters where, since she stepped in last, everyone was chatting already with the others. Ellie went to her bed, and as she put her jacket down, someone tapped on her shoulder. Well, more like pushed her. She turned around, ready to defend herself, but behind her were two boys. The others saw something was happening and stopped their conversations and looked their way. 

“Is there something wrong?” Ellie stupidly asked. 

“Yes. There is. Who are you?” 

“Ellie. I’m new,” she added and instantly regretted it. 

“No shit, you are,” the one behind the ‘leader’ scoffed. 

“And you two are?” Ellie asked back, now in more of a defensive tone. 

“This is Billie, and I’m Liam,” the ‘leader’ said. 

“So, what’d you want from me?” She tried to not sound like a little girl whining because that’s how she felt inside. Getting bombarded with all these things all at once ... 

“We just want to clear a few things,” Liam started as he nodded to Billie. He stepped away from behind Liam and to her locker. Opening it – since she didn’t have time to lock it – he reached in and started pulling her things out. _Everything_. 

“Hey! Stop it!” Ellie wanted to step to him to stop him. Still, Liam put a hand out and stepped between Billie and her. At the same time, Billie continued to pretend to inspect everything in there and find it “wrong” and feeling the need for it to be on the floor instead. 

“Now, now. We don’t want any trouble.” Liam soothed her mockingly, and this just made her angrier. 

“Then, tell your minion to stop!” She looked him in the eyes, then at the other boy. 

“You need to learn who’s in charge here,” Liam said, stepping closer, making her step back, further from her now trashed locker. “You need to learn your place.” 

“Stop it!” 

“Or what? I saw you today. You’re a Lizard. Your type doesn’t change. Your type needs to learn to _obey_.” 

“You don’t know me,” Ellie hissed, fuming. 

“That’s it. Let it out.” Liam teased. “I’m not afraid of a little fire,” he laughed and looked around then back to her. “ _I’m_ on top here,” Liam threateningly poked her chest, but she almost couldn’t feel it from her anger. “You’re on the _bottom_ ,” and when Ellie thought he’d poke her again, he punched her stomach with such force to emphasise his words that her legs gave out and she found herself sitting on the floor. 

She heard them go back to their beds, and she just noticed hers was trashed just as much as her locker was. She didn’t even see Billie do that. 

As the pain was leaving her stomach, she stepped to make her bed again, and that’s when she saw someone approach her. Now, luckily, no one was paying attention to her. She lost this battle against Liam, and Ellie suspected they all wanted to see if the new girl had the guts to stand up to the “king of the troop.” No, she hadn’t. 

This someone who stepped to her, she saw today, struggling as well. But he didn’t seem to be struggling physically, more like, struggling to follow the orders. He was very disoriented and confused as she saw it. 

He crouched down and scooped up her duvet as she moved her mattress back to place. He put the duvet down and did something upon what her mouth dropped. 

He signed, “Are you all right?” 

Gaping, Ellie asked back, “How did you know I could sign?” 

“I didn’t. I made a guess like I did with everyone. No one signs here,” he responded. Then, he went ahead and started to make Ellie’s bed while pointing to her locker. Understanding, she began to fold her things back into place, as they were, as much as she could. They weren’t perfect, but she tried her very best. 

He finished making her bed and took one look at her locker then his watch and started re-folding the wrong ones. His method was a lot more efficient and neater, and she tried to store his method away, so she will remember how to do it later. 

“Thank you. What’s your name?” she asked him. 

“Erik.” 

“Ellie,” she replied, smiling. “Thank you again for helping me. I have no idea why they–” she stopped because Liam shouted from across the room, 

“Look! The two Lizards are bonding!” Almost everyone laughed. 

Since Erik couldn’t hear what they said, he just glanced at them, then back to her and shook his head. “Morons. He thinks he is the king here, but he isn’t.” 

Ellie sighed. “He throws a hard punch, that’s for sure.”

“Maybe, but he is not as tough up here,” he replied and tapped his head when he was done signing. Ellie smiled. 

“I’m glad you came over. I have no friends here,” she signed. “Well, I have, but he is in another wing because–” she stopped because she didn’t know if she should tell him Lucas’s story or not. 

“Because?” 

“It’s a long story,” she signed instead. 

There was a loud bang as Officer Lamy thundered through the door, and suddenly everyone was standing, in resting position and looking ahead, chests out, and chins held high. There was an equally terrifying-looking woman behind him. 

This was the time when Ellie noticed that her row of beds was only occupied by girls and that the woman came over to them. Officer Lamy went over to the opposite side, where the five boys were. 

“What’s your name?” she shouted at her, over Officer Lamy. 

“Ellie Ashton, ma’am,” she said, terrified. 

“Private Ashton, why does your locker look like a pigs pen?” 

“It was trashed by one of the boys, ma’am,” she said, looking ahead and not at her, or at Billie or Liam for that matter, but she could feel their gaze on her. 

“That’s no excuse! Do you want me to take it all out, so you’ll start again?” 

“No, ma’am.” 

“Then fix it! Right now,” she hissed and went to check on the other girls. 

Ellie proceeded to re-fold her clothes neater and glanced behind her and around her as much as she could not make it too obvious that she was looking at the others’ lockers and how they looked and what was where. Because as it turned out, the _order_ of her clothes folded on the shelf was wrong. 

When she thought she was done, the woman and Officer Lamy were going out of the room. The woman turned and gave her a look, then looked back ahead. Ellie did _not_ know what that look was supposed to mean. 

After this inspection, there was a sort of honk-bell-thing to be heard, and people started swarming out of the room. Dinner. 

***

After Erik got her attention, she followed him as they walked out from their quarters, along with another twenty people from the other rooms, to the dining hall which started to fill up with people very quickly. 

Ellie had a thought. Since the dining hall looked very big, big enough to have about two hundred people in it, she was looking for Lucas as they were in the line. 

“Move it!” Someone pushed on her, and she stumbled forward but didn’t fall. Erik looked back at her, concerned, but she just shook her head and continued standing in line, waiting for her food, while occasionally glancing around, her eyes searching. 

Ellie didn’t spot Lucas while they waited, and she and Erik went to sit down at a table that was slightly less occupied. They had these long tables with benches that seated about ten-ten people on either side. Erik and Ellie found one that had two empty seats opposite each other, and they sat down. 

Ellie looked around one more time before thinking she wouldn’t see him today, when she spotted him being escorted inside by an officer, one of who accompanied them here. 

Standing up, she lifted her hand to wave but lowered it, remembering what he told her when they were walking in. Still standing, she followed him with her eyes, and the officer as they were walking, hoping he would spot her. 

Erik tugged on her jacket and motioned for her to sit back down, and she realised the other people at the table were looking at her. Clearing her throat, she sat back down, but not before she looked back to him one more time. 

He was in the line, and since it went down quicker now that most of the people were seated already, she considered waving him over. Yet again, his warning popped into her mind. 

Ellie tried eyeing him, so maybe he’ll notice her, but he didn’t. He and the officer went to a table on the other side of the hall, to a separate table as she saw, secluded from the others. After all, Lucas did mention something about some Isolation. 

Sitting now, Ellie tried to bury herself. She felt so embarrassed suddenly for trying to get Lucas’s attention. At the same time, other people possibly hated her for a reason she didn’t know. Erik tried to get her attention, and as she looked at him, he smiled, trying to cheer her up. 

One more time she looked towards Lucas, but she couldn’t see him among all the other people between them. Ellie wondered where his wing was. 

She finished her dinner and wanted to take it back, as she saw a few others do, but she decided to wait for Erik first. Ellie didn’t want to leave him behind just as much as she didn’t want to go anywhere alone. 

He finished just a few minutes after her, and they took their trays back and headed for the door. When they tried to go out, Liam stepped in front of them with Billie and blocked their way out. 

“What now?” Ellie sighed and rolled her eyes. “Punching me in the stomach once wasn’t enough?”

“I thought you’d have learnt your lesson by now,” he said, his tone oozing with the previous threat. “I heard you tried to snitch to Sergeant Mason. Not cool and definitely not acceptable.” He shook his head theatrically, which made her just look aside and roll her eyes again. “So, I’m giving you a chance to correct yourself and apologise.” 

Ellie scoffed. “I’m not the one who needs to apologise.” 

Liam didn’t say anything. He was possibly waiting for her to change her mind, but she won’t. 

An officer came over. “What is going on here?” 

“Sir, I’m trying to leave, but Liam is blocking the way,” she said, trying her luck if he’ll believe her. 

“What’s your name?” he asked. 

Ellie suddenly felt small compared to him. “Ellie Ashton, sir.” She practically squeaked her name. 

He nodded and turned back to Liam, “Private Blakely, step aside and let Private Ashton and her friend exit the hall,” he commanded. She realised he didn’t sound as harsh and mean as the other officers did. Ellie wondered why that was, but at the moment, she was just happy that he was and that they were free to leave. 

Liam stepped aside, growling, with Billie after him. The officer opened the door for them and looking back at him, she nodded and muttered an unsure “thank you,” and scurried out of the hall, Eric in tow. 

“Who was he?” Ellie asked Erik. 

“Sergeant Hastings,” he told her. “He’s okay,” he added, shrugging. 

“Yeah. He’s not as mean as the others,” Ellie replied, then a moment later she asked, “Can you tell me everything I should know? I don’t want to mess up, and I want to prove Liam wrong as well. I’m not a _Lizard_ – whatever that means,” she threw her hands in the air and rolled her eyes as she finished. 

“A Lizard is someone who always messes up,” he informed her. “And besides, he is just teasing you. He probably thinks you are competition to him.” 

“Me? Scaring someone like Liam? Wow.” Ellie scoffed. “He must be very self-conscious. By the way, who does he think he is? Why does he think he is the king of all of us?”

Erik shrugged then continued. “I haven’t been here that long, but I can tell and show you what I have learnt.” He smiled. 

Ellie nodded. “That’d be good. Thanks.” 

They arrived at their room, and Erik opened the door. A couple of the girls were in already and chatting, but they stopped as soon as the pair stepped in. They gave Ellie a look and went back to their conversation just a bit quieter this time, so Ellie won’t hear it. 

“How do you know how to sign?” Erik asked her as they sat down on his bed. 

“My little brother is deaf.” 

“Is he here, too? Is he the one you were looking for in the cafeteria?” 

“No. My brother was taken a few weeks ago. I went after him, but I ended up not where I needed to be, and we – me and my friend – wanted to sneak in here to find out where he is held,” Ellie told him but was afraid of his reaction. 

“You _voluntarily_ came in here?” 

Ellie made a face. “Sort of. We got caught and got brought here. You see, my friend ran away from here a year ago,” Ellie looked down as she finished, then back up because Erik started signing. 

“Why would you risk all this?” 

“For my brother, of course. I love him, and I will go through anything I have to, to get to him. If it requires me sneaking in here to find out where he is,” she shrugged, “then I will do that.” 

“I admire you.” He smiled sadly. “I had an older brother and a younger sister. They were both out of the age range when they took me, he being over eighteen, and she being two. But they won’t do this for me.” He shook his head. 

“What do you mean?” 

“We were never really close. My sister doesn’t even remember me, and my brother always hated me for being deaf.” He shrugged. “He didn’t even learn sign language.” 

“Wow.” 

“I know, but listen,” he started and shifted on the bed. “You need to stop standing up to people.” Ellie wanted to interrupt, but he didn’t let her. “You _need to_ because it will get you into trouble. It _will_ , especially with Officer Lamy. He likes Liam; he will favour him over anyone here.” 

Ellie nodded, grinding her teeth. “Anything else?” 

“Yes, pay attention because there is a lot more coming.” 

After Erik explained the usual routine, told Ellie where the ladies’ bathroom was and told her vaguely how she gets to certain places. It was already lights out, but they were still up. The red night light that turned on as the lights were out didn’t help at all. They didn’t want to wake the others, so they quickly said their goodbyes and Ellie went back to her bed. There were still some others who were whispering to their neighbours, but shutting them out, she finally fell asleep.


	13. TEN

“Up! Up! Up! And out in five!” There was a shout from the door, then a loud air horn and a bang. 

There were a lot of groans and growls, but everyone got up and started dressing up, and she copied them. She took a second to ask Erik, “Is he for real?” 

He couldn’t sign at the moment, so he just nodded wildly. All Ellie needed to do was put her jacket on and the woman from yesterday, Sergeant Mason, and Officer Lamy were in again. 

Ellie remembered Erik telling her there was an inspection once a day, in the afternoon, as they saw it happen last night. Still, this morning was a surprise to everyone as she saw. Erik did say that when the woman comes in too, that’s an inspection. 

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stood up, looking ahead. No one made their beds, and there were some people still in their shirts and trousers only – or shirtless –, but there were people dressed but missing something, or fully dressed as a couple of them. For Ellie, this was because she put her clothes over the locker door so that she can get it off first thing in the morning. 

“There was an incident yesterday regarding the indoor training areas,” Officer Lamy started. “Due to that, you and a few other troops will be training outdoors today.” Ellie heard a couple of muffled groans or sighs, but no one broke their stance. “Get ready and grab your breakfasts. Report back here in twenty-eight minutes.” As soon as he said it, he turned and left, and everyone was once again dashing here and there. 

Since Ellie was already ready, all she had to do was make her bed. She sort of saw how Erik did it yesterday, but she was glancing at the others today and copying them. She saw Erik waiting for her, and when he saw she finished, they went to grab their breakfasts. 

Twenty minutes later – and hoping she won’t get indigestion from that ‘porridge’ they served – they were back in their rooms, waiting for those leftover minutes for Officer Lamy to come back. When he did, about three of them still weren’t in the room. 

“Where is the rest of you?” he shouted. 

“We don’t know, sir,” a girl Ellie didn’t know yet, also never heard speaking, only in hushed tones to her friend, answered. 

“Well, tough. They can join us when they’re ready,” Officer Lamy said in a mocking tone and held the door for them to go out. 

The group followed him down the hallway and down a way she has not yet walked, and they turned out outside, but another way from where Ellie and Lucas came in yesterday. This outside was not just an empty brownfield, but patchy green and surrounded by four walls, possibly being the rest of the building. Ellie wondered where Lucas might be or if he might be here. Sergeant Mason did say they would be with a few other troops, could one of them be Lucas’s?

As she thought that she must have slowed down because the person behind her gave her a nudge forward. Without looking back, she caught up to the ones in front of her and looked around. 

The place was a sort of outdoor course, but it was massive. All the four walls enclosing the course were very tall, taller than the room Ellie was in yesterday. _“They really outdid themselves with the whole ‘fortress’ thing,”_ she thought. Also, the grey of the walls was almost the same colour of grey as the sky, giving Ellie the feeling of the walls growing into the sky, not letting anyone escape. _“Idyllic,”_ she thought as she walked. 

There were people out here already, going through the course. Ellie didn’t pay too much attention to them. Still, as she looked to the side, she spotted the officer from the dining hall, the one that escorted Lucas, and just as her eyes began searching for him, she spotted him. 

He looked terrible. 

His face looked like he took a lot of beating, he was slow and limping, and on top of that, he was shouted at by his PTI. Ellie just noticed that they were getting closer, but when she broke her gaze from them, she realised they were walking towards them. 

And the person shouting was _Ellie’s_ PTI from yesterday. 

The Corporal ignoring Officer Lamy, he turned to all of them. “You are all late! And where is the rest of you? There were more of you yesterday!” He shook his head. “This shitty troop, oh my God!” he said that more to himself than to them. “Well, what are you waiting for? GET _GOING_!” He didn’t even finish the sentence, and everyone was already on their way, scurrying to the start line and going through the course. 

Glancing back, Ellie saw Officer Lamy talk to Corporal Higgins. Still, of what, she didn’t know of course, for being too far away, but from the headshaking and the looks they gave them she guessed they were talking about her troop. 

And since Ellie was looking backwards not to the front, she bumped into someone while jogging. 

“ _Umpf_. Sorr– Lucas?” Lucas grabbed Ellie’s jacket and pulled her after him through the course. She found him a bit aggressive, but she guessed he just wanted her to get a move on, not just stand there as she did when she saw him. 

“Get going,” he added.

“What happened to you?” Ellie asked, not believing her eyes. 

“My troopmates, that’s what happened. They held a welcome back party for me,” Lucas said, forcing a smile. 

“I’m sorry. For everything.” Ellie paused and looked down. “I guess now you wish you hadn’t come with us in the first place. Then I wouldn’t have dragged you back here, and all of this will not have happened.” 

“Now is the time for someone to say, ‘I told you so,’ but of course I’m not that person, so I won’t say ‘I told you so.’” He smiled. 

“No, you won’t.” Ellie smiled as well but still felt guilty. “What now?” she added. 

“Now you do as I say!” 

“Funny. That’s what the officers say to me.” She frowned, a smile sitting on her lips. 

“Ellie, I’m serious. You _need_ to listen to them. I know you probably don’t–” he stopped because they approached the corporal, who luckily didn’t shout at them. “We _will_ get out of here, you’ll see. I– I just need a little time. I only have a thirty-minute window each day, when no one’s watching, to find the file in the archive and so far, all I know is where it _isn’t_.” 

“I don’t know Lucas ...” 

“Don’t start this shit on me, Ellie!” He nudged her. “You _will_ get to your brother.” 

“We,” she corrected. 

“ _We_ ,” he repeated. “Meet me two hours after lights out tonight,” he added and ran ahead. 

After that, they didn’t speak, but exchanged a few looks, as if to check in on the other. Ellie wasn’t sure why they both stopped talking to one another with words, but she felt like this much talking, only with their eyes, was enough. Otherwise, they would probably notice and tell them off. 

After this session, they had a lunch break. As Ellie and Erik were walking to the dining hall – Lucas was taken by his officer, so he wasn’t with them –, Erik asked Ellie who Lucas was. 

“He was the friend I told you about.” 

He just nodded, smiling, and they entered the dining hall. 

Having their food and looking for a table, she spotted one near Lucas’s secluded one. Lucas noticed her eyeing the empty table and looking down to his food; he shook his head. His officer wouldn’t have understood, but she did; he was telling her not to sit there. So, she nudged Erik and went past them to a table which had two seats opposite each other available again. Ellie sat down so she could see Lucas’s back and Erik took the seat in front of her. 

After they ate, they reported back to the field as they were instructed, however, this time, not Officer Lamy or Corporal Higgins was their instructor, but a woman. In this session, she taught them about weapons. 

At first, she held a theory about them while demonstrating if needed. After about an hour, an hour and a half, each of them was given a weapon, and they practised loading it, disassembling it, cleaning it and assembling it. They did this back and forth until the end of the session – Ellie’s fingers hurt by the end – when it was dark. There were some lights scattered on the walls outside, so they saw what they were doing, but it was better that they finished. 

They didn’t hear the honk-bell yet that indicated dinner, so this meant that the woman – whose name Ellie forgot – let them go early. 

Erik had a watch on him, and it told them they had about twenty minutes until six when they could go and eat. He suggested for them to go back to their quarters and wait it out there, but Ellie had another idea. 

They went down the way where their quarter was, but they turned the other way, going towards where Captain Roghier told her she didn’t want to find out what was there. Now, she wanted to. But before they stepped onto the corridor, she explained it to Erik.

“Are you sure?” he asked. Not ‘this is a bad idea, let’s go back’ or ‘you shouldn’t be doing this’ or ‘I’m scared’. No. He asked Ellie if she was sure she wanted to see what was down here, in case it’s something she shouldn’t see for her own safety and wellbeing. 

“Yes,” Ellie nodded and turned to walk down the corridor. 

Seemingly it was just the same as the corridor where their quarter was, but this one wasn’t a dead end as Ellie saw it while walking down. There were the same metal doors on both sides, they just weren’t labelled. 

“They don’t have numbers,” she told Erik, and though he didn’t make a humming sound, she read it from his facial expression, that’s what he was thinking. 

They crept down the corridor, occasionally looking back to see if anyone saw or followed them. Not one sound from anywhere. Ellie knew these were metal doors, so she wouldn’t really hear if there was anyone or anything behind them, but she was hoping she would. 

Reaching the end of the corridor, there was a way to the left and to the right. 

“Which way?” Erik asked her. 

Ellie shrugged. “I don’t know. What do you think?”

“Can you hear anything?” he asked. 

Ellie listened for a couple of seconds, she even closed her eyes so she could focus more. Then from the right, she heard footsteps, and when she peeked out from behind the corner, she spotted the shadows of two officers. She waved to Erik to come and follow her, and as quiet as they could, they ran back to their quarters. 

Well, that was the plan until they ran into an officer. 

“What were you doing down there?” she asked. 

“We took a wrong turn, ma’am. We’re heading to the dining hall now,” she said, glancing at Erik who did the same but remained neutral. 

“Go on, then.” She motioned towards the hallway, and nodding, Ellie stepped ahead of her, and with her shadowing them, the two of them walked to the dining hall. 

***

Ellie was nervous about her meeting with Lucas. Since he told her, all she could think of in her free time was where they were going to meet. Are they going to go and look for the archive or is he going to want to just talk? Are they going to get caught? What will happen then? Will they hurt Lucas more? 

“Ashton! Look alive!” Somebody shouted as somebody else crashed into her. 

“Sorry,” Ellie said, mostly to the person who crashed into her. 

“Stop fucking up and do as you are told! I don’t want to dig because of you!” Liam growled and pushed on her making her fall to the ground, and turned and ran backwards, moving his two fingers between his and her eyes, meaning he is watching her. Ellie just rolled her eyes, stood and sped up, determined to outrun Liam as they did their rounds around that patchy green site they were on this morning. 

It was a surprise to Ellie, and seemingly to everyone when Officer Lamy came in at seven and announced that they needed to be at the field immediately. Everyone dropped what they were doing and marched out to the field in single file. There, he told everyone to start running, and when they finished their twenty rounds around the perimeter, they could go. Then he took his foldable chair that Ellie didn’t see him hold, and he sat down while they ran around like crazy. 

Ellie was on her seventh round when the rain started falling. Those of them who were near Officer Lamy looked at him, but he just told them to keep going until they reached twenty. 

Ellie saw Liam about twenty feet ahead of her, and since she had enough strength left in her, she sped up and caught up to him. She could be competitive if she wanted to be, and Liam made her do this. She’ll prove Liam wrong, even if she dies trying. They were head to head as they passed the officer, who just looked at them with a raised eyebrow through the curtain of rain. 

Ellie saw that they passed Erik once, and her glancing at him cost her about a foot distance between her and Liam. Still, she caught up to him again, and she even passed him and held it for four more rounds. 

When they reached twenty, they were still head to head, and they stepped over the finish line that way. Panting, they stopped against the wall and just breathed. Officer Lamy looked at them, stood up and folded his chair away. 

“Congratulations. You are the first two to finish. You are dismissed,” the corporal said. Liam gave Ellie a confused look and still breathing heavily, they both went back inside. 

“What was that look you gave me?” Ellie asked him, in-between breaths. 

“Nothing. I was just surprised you could keep up.” He shrugged. 

“How long have you been here?” she asked suddenly. 

“Longer than all of you,” he shot back, back to his cold self. 

“Is that why you think you’re the best?” Ellie lifted a brow. 

“I don’t think I’m the best.” He scoffed and stopped. He stepped towards her, forcing her against the wall. “I _know_ I am.” He spat then started walking again.

“Hm. We’ll see,” Ellie mumbled, catching up, and by this time they were at their quarters, instead of going into the room, she went into the bathroom to sort herself out quickly.


	14. ELEVEN

When Erik finished his rounds, it was around nine. There was another member from their troop who hadn’t finished yet, but Ellie didn’t know that person. 

When Erik finally walked in, he was dishevelled; his hair all messy and sweaty, had his jacket off, and she saw his chest going up and down fast. However, he seemed not to be panting anymore. He was walking like there were weights on his shoulders, and his eyes lost their glimmer. 

“You okay?” Ellie asked, and he just shook his head. “Listen,” she sat down on his bed. “You know my friend?” 

“Lucas?” he asked back, unsure. 

“Lucas,” she nodded. “He asked me to meet him two hours after lights out.” 

“You can’t.” Erik shook his head wildly. 

Ellie frowned. “Why?” 

“There are cameras in the corridors and hallways, they’ll see him. And you too,” he added. 

Ellie was silent, thinking. “I’m sure Lucas will figure a way out.” 

“All right, but then don’t talk in the corridors. Go into the bathroom maybe,” Erik suggested. Ellie was confused and was about to ask why, when he continued. “I know they won’t look there, and there are no cameras in there.” 

Ellie just realised. “Wait. Cameras? I didn’t see any cameras anywhere.” It’s true, and she found it strange at first, but she guessed it was just well surveyed by the people that they thought they didn’t need cameras. 

“Yes. They are well hidden for us not to spot, but I have spotted a few. There is one, just below the red night light, but don’t look now. They are those small cameras, and I only noticed it because I was standing at an angle and looking at the light once.” 

“Okay. So, there are none in the bathroom?” 

“Not that I noticed. Though it’s not something that I wouldn’t think they would do.” 

“I know, right?” Ellie shook her head. “Oh. Also, Liam said something to me today, he said he doesn’t want to ‘dig’ because of me. Why– What did he mean?” 

“Oh, that is a punishment at the end of every week for the weakest achieving troop,” Erik answered. 

“How do you know? Have you done it yet?” 

“No. I only know because, before Officer Lamy, there was another person here, who could sign, and he would help me, but one day he was gone, and no one replaced him.” 

“So, you don’t even know what is going on most of the time?” Ellie asked, surprised. 

“No. Why? What’s going on?” He looked confused. 

Ellie shook her head. “No, I mean in general.” 

“I can sort of lip read, but not very well without signing. Mostly I just copy people.” He shrugged. 

“I’m sorry. I should have thought of signing to you what they’re saying, so you will understand too.” Ellie felt bad for not thinking about doing this sooner. 

“It’s okay. But if you don’t mind doing it from now on–” 

“Of course,” Ellie answered before he could finish. “Of course, I’ll do it.” 

“Thanks. We better get started on our night routine before you need to go,” he suggested, and she agreed. 

Helping each other, they spent the remaining two hours until she needed to meet Lucas, with washing, drying and ironing their clothes. Some people were doing the same, but they were talking to each other, while she and Erik were just enjoying each other’s company, silently. 

***

Ellie noticed that today they didn’t come in to say lights out, and she couldn’t wrap her head around how that worked. Two hours after lights out there were still some people up, but luckily the main light was not on, but a sort of lantern they got from somewhere. Ellie didn’t see them get it out, just that it was there when she woke up for some reason. She fell asleep while the main light was on and woke up in dimmer light. 

Turned out she woke up around the right time. It was five minutes after the time she needed to meet Lucas. Since people were still up, Ellie wasn’t afraid that she would wake them up when she sneaked out. In fact, she didn’t even need to sneak, she just put her shoes on and went to the bathroom. They would – hopefully – think she’s doing bathroom business there. 

When Ellie opened the door, she didn’t see or hear anything or anyone in there. She proceeded to look in the stalls by crouching down and searching for a pair of legs. When she was on the last one, she saw motion from the corner of her eye and looking up, she spotted Lucas leaning out from behind the wall at the last stall, that separated the showers from the stalls. 

“Lucas!” Ellie breathed as she stepped up to him and drew him into a tight embrace. She felt so good that she could finally hug him; like when you finally find the thing you were looking for for ages, and you just need a moment to take in the fact that it’s in your hands now once again. She realised they saw each other today and the day before, but this still felt different. 

“It’s okay. I’m here, Ellie,” Lucas said in a hushed, half-whisper which was the most comforting sound to her at the moment and was all she needed to hear to calm down. 

“I know I saw you today, but that wasn’t the same.” Ellie looked up to his face, his colourful bruises and tired, dull eyes. “I’m so sorry this all happened to you. If it weren’t for my stupid idea, we wouldn’t be here.” 

“And you won’t get to your brother,” he added. “I can take a few swings if it means you’ll get to your brother.” Ellie shook her head and looked down, feeling guiltier than before. Before she could say anything – nothing was on her mind, but still, – he said, “Listen, the reason why I’m here right now is that I want– I need your help.” Ellie looked up. “I want you to come with me searching for the file.” 

She nodded. 

“As I said, we only have a thirty-minute window, and it would take me _ages_ to search the whole room alone, so I need you to look in one corner of it, and I, in another.” 

“All right.” Ellie nodded again. “When is this thirty-minute window?” 

“Right now. That’s why I could sneak out.” She didn’t understand, and he clearly saw that because after shaking his head clear of thoughts, he continued. “They reboot the system every night as a precaution and whatever.” He waved dismissively. “I only know it because my Sergeant explained when we escaped. But now the time is different. Last time it was much later into the night. Now I stayed up and watched the camera in my room, and when I saw it go off, I checked the time and rechecked it when it came back on.” 

“I see. So, how would we go about doing it?” 

“Well, hmm ... I know you only have been here two days, you can’t possibly know where the archive is. I’ll take you there, and we’ll look through the cabinets together.” 

“But wouldn’t there be someone in there? Like, on a night shift, or something?” Ellie asked while frowning.

“I’m not sure. If there is, we’d need a distraction.” 

“And which one of us would that be?” Ellie asked in a hinting tone that Lucas didn’t catch.

“I don’t know. Maybe you?” He started, and from the look Ellie gave him, he continued instantly. “I mean, I know the archives better than you, having been actually in there before, and I’d probably know where to look.”

“Okay … That’s fair, but let’s say you don’t find it. What then? I can only stall for so long.”

“If I don’t find it …” He thought about his answer. “Then, we go back.”

“And I stall the person again?”

Lucas nodded proudly. “Yes.”

“What if it’s the same person? They won’t fall for it. And besides,” she threw her arms in the air, “how much chance is there for a private to stumble upon the archives _accidentally_? They’ll see right through me. And where would you hide while the person is occupied with me? No no no, this plan will never work. We need to go at a time when there’s no one inside,” she reasoned.

“Well, now I’m not sure if it’s a good idea either,” Lucas admitted, scratching the back of his neck. “Also, there are still people out after lights out, but not as many; in fact, only a couple, and they are always alone, not in pairs like during the daytime,” he added. 

Ellie nodded but didn’t know what to do with this piece of information at the moment. “So, what are we going to do? What’s the plan?”

“Well if the core of the plan is to go into the archives when there is no one around, and find the exact file we need before they come back then we have that, but as an execution, I …” he cut himself off, not wanting to admit that he had nothing.

Ellie understood, though.

“Oh, and how did you know to come to the bathroom to talk?” she asked him out of sudden realisation. 

“There are no cameras in the bathrooms.” He shrugged. “Not even they would do that.” He saw her expression and added, “Why?” 

“Because my friend, Erik told me to go into the bathroom to talk instead of the corridor because of the cameras,” she explained. “But obviously, he doesn’t know of this window then.” 

“Probably.” Ellie looked at him admiringly, feeling so happy to see him. “What?” 

“I’m just so happy to see you, you know.” 

Lucas stepped over to her and hugged her again. “Me too, Ellie.” When he let her go, he asked, “You haven’t gotten yourself into any trouble already, have you?” 

“Uhh, well, I too had a welcoming party.” Lucas went pale. “No no no no no, it was just one kid, Liam. He just showed me that he is the ‘king of the troop.’” Ellie said mockingly. 

“What did he do?” Lucas asked, Ellie’s humour clearly going over his head. 

“His minion, Billy, trashed my locker and bed right before the inspection–” Ellie said, finishing too quickly for she was about to say what Liam did after that. 

“Ellie,” his tone hid a warning. “Tell me.” 

She looked down. “Well, obviously he didn’t like my presence in the troop, Erik thinks I intimidate him, but I’m not sure about this theory,” she rambled. Even though Lucas listened, he was growing impatient. “So, he was talking to me all about himself and– To use his words and what he meant by it, he … put me in place.” 

“He did _what_?” Lucas raised his voice. 

“Shhhh! They’re a few doors down, and this one isn’t metal!” Ellie told him off. 

“Ellie, tell me already!” Lucas held her by the shoulders. “What. Did. He. Do?” 

“He hit me in the stomach, okay?” She shrugged his hands off. “No big deal.” 

“Just that?” Lucas asked, but his tone suggested he was expecting her to say more. 

“Yes. For real, it’s nothing. I’m still standing, all right?” Ellie tried some humour, but it went over his head yet again.

Lucas held her hand. “You shouldn’t let yourself be beaten up by your troopmates.” 

Ellie laughed and took her hand away. “First of all, didn’t you say not to do anything stupid? Getting into a fight with a stronger guy would have been that. Also, it’s not like I had a _choice_ ; and you’re one to talk! Have you looked in a mirror lately?” As she said it, Lucas turned to the side and looked in the giant mirror on the wall above the basins. “I’m sorry,” she said when he looked back. 

“No, you’re right,” he said, and nodding, he stepped away from her. The growing distance between them ached Ellie’s heart, and it was all her fault. If she would just finally learn to keep her mouth shut– “My case was different though. I’ve been gone a year, and they welcomed me back in this manner because I was out for a year, and they weren’t. They were envious, and this is how they showed it.” 

“How many of them?” Ellie asked the first question that popped up in her head. 

“Half of them.” He shrugged. “One after the other they gave me their piece of mind.” He sighed then chuckled. Ellie frowned. “I must say, I’ve never had my hair pulled this many times before, and this hard.” 

It took Ellie a moment to realise he didn’t mean how she thought he did. His smile gave away the other meaning, and when she got it, laughing, she looked aside. She heard him chuckle again. 

“When is the time up?” Ellie asked. 

“I should make my way back,” Lucas said instead of answering her question. He turned to Ellie and hugged her one last time and kissed her cheek. “Meet me here in two days, all right?” Ellie nodded, too stunned from that sudden kiss on her cheek to say anything. “See you then,” he said and left the bathroom. 

***

For the next two times that they met, they planned the execution of getting into and out of the archive. They never went anywhere yet, they needed to solidify what they had. Calculate everything they could into it so that hopefully nothing went wrong.

Six days after, when they met for the first time in the bathroom – Ellie made sure to be a couple minutes in just to be sure – they didn’t waste time talking. Even though the last time they saw each other was two days ago, Ellie didn’t feel sad in the meantime. She had tonight to look forward to.

“How long do we have?” Ellie asked after they greeted each other with hugs.

Lucas looked at his watch. “About twenty-five minutes. Let’s go.” 

They went out of the bathroom and after looking around to see if anyone who’s not really supposed to be, was there. No. The path ahead of the two of them was clear until the corridor, and upon turning down on it, still no one. 

“So far s–” Lucas started to say, but she interrupted by putting a hand on his mouth. 

“Do not jinx it!” Ellie shot back. 

“Mokai,” he said, that was supposed to be “okay,” but her hand was still covering his mouth. 

She nodded forward. “Let’s go.” 

“I’m not sure what to think about this side of you,” he whispered. “I’m not sure if I should be intimidated or impressed.” 

Ellie just glanced at him, not knowing how to respond to that. 

A few moments later, they reached the end of the corridor, and the path led left and right. 

Since Ellie didn’t know where she was going, she followed Lucas from this point on. When they got near the archive, Lucas stopped around the corner, a safe distance away from it.

“I go in, you keep watch.”

“ _What?_ Wait, that wasn’t the plan.” Ellie frowned.

“I know, but I realised our plan sucked.”

“And this doesn’t? How am I meant to let you know if someone’s coming!?” Ellie asked.

He thought for a second. “Knock on the door twice and twice again. I’ll know.”

Ellie sighed. “Fine.”

They looked around in the corridor, and when they saw no one, the duo approached the archive door. Ellie stayed by it while Lucas slipped in.

“Be careful, okay?” Lucas said to Ellie in the last minute.

“You don’t have to worry about me.” She smiled softly. 

“I don’t want you doing stupid things, okay? I can take it, I grew up in this, but _you_ haven’t. I want you to walk out of here, in one piece and sane and unbroken.” He pointed back the way they came, but she understood what he meant. 

“I’m not sure that’s possible.” 

He put his hand up to disagree, but no words came out of his mouth, so he just sighed, admitting that she was right. Not wanting to waste any more time, he disappeared in the room, and Ellie was left standing awkwardly by the door.

For minutes nothing happened. The silence was eerie, and she really wished she had her watch with her. _“Hurry up, Lucas,”_ she told him mentally.

The sound of footsteps made her jump, even though they were faint and coming from around the corner – exactly where they came from a few minutes ago. If she wasn’t so frightened, she would have understood what they talked about, but her racing heart muffled everything.

 _Knock knock._ Pause. _Knock knock._

She hoped Lucas heard it.

She stepped into the middle of the corridor and pretended to look around confusedly.

She was improvising.

“Hey!” Somebody shouted from behind her, and it made her jump and spin around. Hurried footsteps then an arm grabbing hers. Ellie’s heart was still racing, threatening to jump out of her chest. 

“You shouldn’t be here! What are you doing here?” he asked. Frozen from the fact that she got caught, she couldn’t say a word, just stare at him in fear. ”I asked you something, are you deaf?” He shook her by the arm he held.

Ellie shook her head, knowing she had to answer. “N-no. Sir.” From his shouting, whoever was behind him now caught up, looking around, looking for the source of the commotion. _“And it had to be the captain, hadn’t it?”_ she thought. 

She thought she winced, maybe a little, and quietly upon seeing Captain Roghier and a woman behind him. While he had a sort of “not you again” expression mixed with surprise, she had surprise and confusion on her face. Her lips were parted as if wanting to voice the thoughts that flooded her mind, but she remained silent. 

“What are you doing here?” He asked. Ellie felt like she didn’t need to answer, it was written all over her. The only thing that was circling in Ellie’s head at this moment was if Lucas will get caught too. 

“I’m ... I ... don’t know. I must’ve sleepwalked.” Ellie tried to get out of it, not knowing how successful her acting will be.

“Well, I guess this is your lucky day. Since you went on an adventure at the right time,” he glanced at the person still holding her arm, “I’ll show you back to your room,” he said, but he had a sinister smile on.

“St– Captain, is this necessary?” The woman asked, possibly already knowing what he planned to do with the girl. Hearing her start to say something else in the beginning, Ellie thought if the woman wanted to call the captain by his first name. 

“Don’t worry. I’m simply showing her back. On the scenic route since she is already on a night-time adventure,” he said in a disgustingly mocked tone and smirk that almost made Ellie want to throw up the equally gopping dinner she had a few hours ago. “You can leave now,” he waved to the woman, not looking at her, who then obeyed him but not before looking at the captain confused and ... sad or disappointed; Ellie couldn’t tell. 

The captain then looked back to the man holding her. “Please come with me. We’ll escort the young lady back.” 

Ellie wasn’t sure what was going on, why the captain was so interested in seeing her back to her room and not just ordering the officer to take her back. What she _did_ know was that this was nothing ordinary, and they maybe weren’t even on their way back to her room. She didn’t know what thought scared her more: the fact that he was escorting her himself or that he was planning something Ellie won’t get out of easily. 

At this moment, Ellie remembered that instead of throwing herself at the captain and getting caught practically on purpose, she could’ve just gone into the archive and hid there.

They walked down – they walked her down – the hallways, then turned left, onto the curving corridor (the one the captain told her not to go down on), and the captain walked up to the door somewhere in the middle. At this point, Ellie knew they were definitely not going back to her room.

The captain got a card-like something out of his pocket – he was standing in front of Ellie; therefore she couldn’t see clearly –, and he presented it in front of the door, which then made a long _hiss_ and a slow and deep _click_ sound. 

Cold air filled the corridor and decreased the temperature by a lot of degrees as the door opened inside the room. Just realising from the grin that the captain had on his face that wasn’t just _showing_ her what was behind this door, ooh no, he’d never do something like that. 

_He was putting her in._

When she realised this, it was almost too late, the man holding her was already taking a step towards the door. Ellie resisted and freed her arm from his grip and moved away before his outstretched hand would have caught her again. 

“No! _No!_ Cap–” 

“Ashton, you brought this upon yourself,” the captain cut in. He nodded towards the door, and the man grabbed both her arms because she was too focused on her fear to notice him and dragged her in the freezing room. 

He stepped in with her too, and for a second – but a long and terrifying second – Ellie thought he is being left in there to torture her. Still, he stepped out after almost literally throwing her into the middle of the room. 

It was lit – ironically with a slightly blue light –, but it was dim and covered with ice. The walls, the ceiling, the floor, the _door_. Ellie could see the air she _wasn’t_ breathing out, swirl around her, mixing with her frozen breath. Ellie was already shivering and shaking, but she was only standing here for a few seconds, and the captain hadn’t even closed the door yet. 

Being already too cold, she tried to walk to the door, but as they saw her do this, the captain stepped to it and pulled it shut faster than she could process what was happening. 

_“NOOO!”_ Ellie screamed at the closed and now _locked_ door as she heard it _click_ in the next second. “ _NOOO!_ LET ME OOOUUUT!” She pounded on the door, which wasn’t a good idea because the layer of frost and ice on it hurt as well as it was freezing, and it stung. _“LET! ME! OOOUUUTTT!”_

Ellie wasn’t sure if they heard her or not, or if they did, she was sure they didn’t care. Tears started to form in her eyes and began to sting seconds later, so she wiped them off with the sleeve of her top. Luckily, she wore the long-sleeved shirt for bed that she found in the wardrobe. Still, having her jacket like Lucas did, would have been more helpful. 

Ellie lost track of time and started to get tired because she shivered. She wanted to sit down, and she tried to but soon realised the floor was too cold for that. Looking down at it, her motions slow, she took a second to process why. Then she looked around and noted that she can’t do anything but stand. 

Her eyes falling shut, and her hands frozen to her arms as she was hugging herself, she wanted to fall asleep or at least sit, more than ever. She crouched down, almost sitting on the floor, and it helped a bit. All she could do was breathe, and that started to hurt after a while too. She just watched her breath form as a white puff before swirling away, mixing with the air before disappearing from her eyes. 

Stopping breathing through her nose and starting to breathe through her mouth, Ellie soon realised it wasn’t her best choice. Closing her mouth, wanting to wet the inside of her mouth, now she couldn’t. 

Her hands weren’t moving up and down her arm any more to generate heat, and she started to not feel cold but feel nothing. She couldn’t think; breathing hurt; her legs were falling asleep from crouching and the last thing she remembered going through her mind was, for how long will she be here?


	15. TWELVE

When the door opened again, Ellie couldn’t feel her legs, nor her arms, nor anything else for that matter. Her eyes froze shut a while ago, and breathing stung her lungs however small breaths she took.

This person who came in, she heard him shiver and murmured a comment on the cold, but to Ellie, it was as if the audio was echoing and being late. He – by the voice of the person Ellie knew the person was a man – came over, and she felt him put something over her and scooped her up in his arms.

Ellie couldn’t say anything, and her eyes were still shut, so she couldn’t even see her saviour. She felt that they were walking, and they stopped for a moment. By the sound of it, he closed a door, and they were walking again.

Next, Ellie was put down on something soft in a warmer room. It might have been average room temperature, she wouldn’t have known, but anything would be better than that icy room. Again, he put something over her, then Ellie heard a machine being turned on. It made a deep hum, and at first, she panicked, thinking he would do something with her, but when nothing happened, Ellie calmed down. Starting to feel warm, she let herself fall asleep, thinking, believing, she wouldn’t be threatened by cold now.

When she woke up and opened her eyes, they felt so heavy that she could only squint. And the bright light didn’t help either. Her hands were moving to shield her eyes.

“Sorry,” Ellie heard a vaguely familiar voice say, and the brightness was gone, now bearable. She opened her eyes more, and she saw a man sitting on a chair not far from her, leaned forward, leaning on his elbows on his knees, and looking at her, seemingly studying her.

He was wearing a white t-shirt and camo trousers, his boots at the foot of the chair. He looked familiar, but she couldn’t remember from where. Ellie had seen and been told off by many people here, and her face recognition was not the best at this moment. However, he had a certain calmness to him, the way he held himself, the way he looked at her, it wasn’t threatening, it wasn’t scary, quite the opposite.

Ellie looked away from him and looked around the room, supporting herself with her arms, she half sat up.

There was the humming machine on both sides from the stretcher she was lying on. Ahead of her was the door with a deadbolt over it, locked right now. Moving her legs, Ellie felt she was dressed the way she was when she and Lucas went on their expedition.

And then everything came back to her.

_The hallway._

_The corridor with the doors._

_A man catching her._

_Captain Roghier._

_And when he put her into the room._

Ellie looked back to the man sitting in the chair, his eyes still on her.

 _And_ him _. The man who brought her here from there._

“How long was I in that room for?” Ellie asked, her throat dry and felt like sandpaper.

He stood up and went behind Ellie, to a cabinet and a sink by it. “What, the icy one?” He took a glass from the cabinet and poured some water for her. “About a half-hour. Give or take.” He handed her the glass, and shifting to sit upright, she held it with both hands. It was cold and made her shiver. Now memories of it came back, haunting, as she shivered from the cold of the glass.

“You were supposed to be in there for an hour, at least that’s what the captain told us. ‘In an hour, go in and get her out!’” he quoted him mockingly. “He ordered me to stand watch, but I couldn’t bear the thought of someone being in there. I never had the misfortune of spending more than a minute in there – that minute it took me to get you out, but that was enough for me.” He shook his head, showing he wants nothing to do with the room whatsoever. “I couldn’t imagine someone spending an _hour_ in there. They’d _die_!”

“Somehow, I gather, that was the point,” Ellie added quietly, sipping from the water. Though it was cool, it was refreshing. He looked at her, and she continued. “It felt like an eternity,” she paused. “I _did_ think I was going to be left there to die.” Ellie lowered the glass, and after a moment, when she realised, she looked up. “Why did you help me? You could get into trouble for this!”

He shrugged. “Not if he doesn’t know that I brought you out early.”

Ellie didn’t understand. “How would he not know? Doesn’t he know of _everything_? That’s why he has his minions.” She spat. She was disgusted by just thinking about the captain, and whoever did his dirty bidding.

“Ouch, ‘minions?’” he scoffed, smiling. “But it’s true. Then we will see.” He shrugged.

“What do you mean? I don’t want to go back in there, and I think it’s safe to assume that he would put you in right next to me if he found out!” Ellie was starting to panic.

“Shhh. Relax.” He said with a small smile lingering at the corner of his mouth. Ellie didn’t say a word. He was looking directly in her eyes, then leaned back and looked away. “You really _are_ afraid, aren’t you?”

Ellie looked down into the water in the glass, still cupped in her hands. “Can you blame me?” Her distorted reflection was not what she wanted to see right now. Though she couldn’t even imagine how she looked right now, that was the least of her worries. “Lucas!” Ellie cried out as she remembered.

“Who?” The man asked, but to Ellie, it was as if he wasn’t even in the room. There was only one thing on her mind, and that was Lucas.

“He hasn’t been caught, has he?” She asked, looking at the door, and trying to look through it.

The man leaned forward again, frowning. “Wait, wait, wait a second. Who’s Lucas?”

“Did you see him? Oh, my God, I hope he’s okay.”

He stood up and took a step forward. Worried now, he asked again, “Ellie, who’s Lucas?”

This popped bubble. “How do you know my name?” Her heart started to beat faster than before, and she couldn’t take her eyes off of him, fearing he’ll do something to her that she didn’t want him to do.

Sighing, realising he scared her, he sat back down, resuming his previous leisurely position. “I just know. Almost everyone knows. The news of your arrival spread like wildfire. Now, who’s this ‘Lucas?’”

Putting his reply aside – she planned to ask about it later –, she sighed and said, “My friend.” She paused. “We got separated.” Ellie paused again, then looked up. “I need to find him.” Ellie put the glass beside her and removed the blanket from on top of her. Swinging her legs over, she stood up.

“Not a good idea. You’re still not a hundred per cent.”

“Then help me,” she looked in his eyes. “I _need_ to find him.”

“Wait. Just ... tell me about him,” he said. “I can find him for you.”

She squinted at him. “Why would I trust you?” It was as if a physical wall had been put up between them at this moment. Ellie realised she knew nothing of this man in front of her, and for all she knew, he could be playing her.

“Because I saved your life? Sort of.” He mumbled the end of it.

Ellie nodded. “Maybe, but that doesn’t make you trustworthy. I don’t even know your name.”

“Sergeant Hastings. Bill, if you like.” She only nodded in response. He knew who she was already, so there was no point in introducing herself. “So, who’s this ‘Lucas?’” He asked.

Ellie sighed. “Lucas Night. He–” She cut herself off and saw the surprise and curiosity on Bill’s face. “How much can I trust you?”

“Depends. Are you in trouble?”

“What makes you think I’m not?” she scoffed, laughing, throwing her hand in the air. “I’m in trouble just because I’m breathing. Captain Roghier dislikes – well, _hates_ – me for some reason, and don’t get me started on Corporal Higgins.”

“Yeah, they don’t like anybody, but that’s not what I meant.” He shook his head. “I saw you around. You don’t look like you wanted to be here.”

“Nobody does. Nobody _wants_ to be here.” Ellie shook her head, looking up at Bill.

He looked confused.

“You ... you do know they kidnap kids and bring them here ... right?” she asked cautiously.

“No.” He shook his head slowly, looking shocked, leaning forward. “No, I didn’t. I’ve been here since I was sixteen, but that was my choice. When did this start?”

“Ten years ago. Give or take. They started taking everybody at first, kids and adults, then only kids. We don’t know why, and up until now, I didn’t even know where they took them. You see my brother is one they took, but I want him back. He–” Ellie sighed. “I _need_ him. He is the only family I have left!”

“Is he here?”

“No. He is at another camp, I think. I don’t know where. Lucas and I only came here to find out where the other camps are.” Ellie bit her lip and looked down because this slipped out when she didn’t want to tell him.

“That’s your plan!? Sneak in here, get the info and sneak out!?”

“You don’t get to judge me! You don’t know me!” She shouted back, offended by his accusatory tone. “How else could we get any information? It’s not as if we could just ask a soldier where the other camps are. ‘Why,’ they would ask. ‘Oh, you see because I want to get my brother back,’ and _bang_ , there is a bullet in my head!” Ellie was shouting and breathing hard by the end. Rage filled her so quickly it not only surprised her but Bill as well. He didn’t expect her to respond with the same temper he asked his questions.

“It is incredibly risky and stupid!” He crossed his arms. “What are you looking for?”

“I can’t ask you to help us.” Ellie shook her head, looking down. “You joined voluntarily, and obviously, this is what you want to do, and I can’t take it away from you. By doing what we planned, if you help us, you can’t come back here. You’d most likely be hunted down like L–” she squeezed her hand to shut herself up.

“Finish the sentence,” he said, with a hint of order in it. Ellie shook her head slightly. “Ellie.” The way he said her name was like he was tugging on a rope tied to her. “Finish your sentence. Like who?”

Ellie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Like Lucas.” She sighed. “He ...” Her voice broke. She was afraid of telling him this. “He escaped, about a year ago a-and ...”

“And now, he is back here?” He cut in.

Ellie nodded but didn’t look at him. “They welcomed him well.” She muttered.

“Yes, they tend to do that,” he agreed, deep in his thoughts. “Listen,” he stood up and walked over to her. Ellie looked up, feeling vulnerable because of telling him all this. Ellie felt like she could trust him, but she went against her gut feeling and didn’t fully. “Listen,” he repeated. “Now I know how these twelve-year-olds are winding up here, and I want to help you stop it.”

Ellie shook her head, confused. “I never said I planned to stop it.”

“Don’t you?”

Her eyes were starting to sting. “I just want to get my brother back and get out of here.”

“All right, all right,” he whispered, looking at her. There was something in his voice that Ellie found comforting. “Look, I _can_ help you.”

“No, you–”

“Ellie!” He put his hands on her shoulders, but not in a way to weigh her down; in a way that said he supported her. “I _want_ to help you get your brother back. I changed my mind the second you told me what was happening. I do _not_ agree with this. Had I’d known this earlier, I would’ve been long gone. This is _wrong_ , Ellie, I hope you see that too!”

“I _do_. But I can’t do it alone! And even with Lucas and you–” She stopped, shook her head and instead she asked, “What are you planning?”

“I don’t know.” Bill took his hands away and looked aside. “I wish I did,” he whispered.

“How long was I asleep for?” Ellie just realised she remembered being brought out but didn’t know how long she was here.

“It was around one in the morning when I brought you out. I was constantly checking my watch,” Bill added, slightly embarrassed. “Right now, it’s ... twelve seventeen.”

“In the afternoon?” she asked, stunned.

“Yes,” he said, and she was relieved because for a moment she thought it was at night. She wouldn’t have believed she slept a whole day.

Ellie sighed. “What will happen now?” she asked, looking down.

He shrugged. “You’ll go back to your troop. Your PTI and your officer probably know about this by now, so they’d probably understand but may be hard on you for the rest of the day.”

“No doubt.” She muttered.

“As for your friend, do you want me to find him and tell him about th–”

“No–!”

“–is? Okay.” He nodded, the corner of his mouth tugging upwards. “But can I suggest something?”

“What?”

“Don’t do anything stupid anymore.”

She clenched her fists but sighed and relaxed. “I need to find my brother. That’s the reason why I’m here. That’s the reason why Lucas risked coming back: to _help_ me find him. He knew this place – or he sort of knows it –, and I needed him, and he knew that. I can’t back out now, I’ll be stuck here. And I don’t want that!”

“All right. Tell me what you are looking for.”

“Do you have access to everything here?” Ellie asked after a moment.

“Most things.”

“I need a map. Or a file. Whichever.”

“A map or a file?”

“Either a map of the camp locations or a file of my brother,” she corrected and added, “If there is such a thing here.”

He nodded. “I’ll see if I can find anything like that, but in the meantime, I _need_ _you_ to stop doing stupid and reckless things like last night, understood? I cannot help you if you’re dead or put into the room again. I happened to be stationed nearby, but that likely won’t happen again.”

“Why?”

“Rotation?” he simply said, but it sounded like he was guessing as if he wasn’t sure in the answer either. Ellie looked down, nodding slowly.

“I need you to promise. I need you to behave and obey your officers’ words, and do what they say and when they say it, am I clear?”

“Yes, sir,” Ellie mumbled quietly.

She felt so small right now. So small compared to Bill, and so silly and childish. She felt terrible for doing this and looking back, she thought it was insignificant and stupid.

Bill sighed. “All right. Let’s get you back to your quarters.”

His previous words were dancing around in Ellie’s head, _“I just know. Almost everyone knows. The news of your arrival spread like wildfire.”_

“Wait.” Without saying anything, Bill looked back at her, waiting for her to continue. “What did you mean when you said that everyone knew of my arrival?”

He frowned. “I remember hearing about an Ashton coming, and I knew I heard that name before.” Bill shrugged. “It seemed to me that everyone knew you were coming. I’m not sure if it was an information leak or intentional.”

Ellie hummed. “What do you mean you’ve heard of the name Ashton?”

“I remember someone mentioning it in a story they were telling.” Bill shrugged. “Nothing more. But the person telling the story seemed angry when mentioning the name.”

“Angry?” Ellie frowned.

“When we met in the cafeteria,” Bill continued and Ellie was surprised he remembered, “and you told me your name–” he stopped, unable to finish, but Ellie sort of gathered what he was trying to say.

Trying her legs if they will hold her, she stood up, holding onto the stretcher. Bill stepped next to her and put a hand under her arm to hold her up, but she shook him off, feeling more confident with each small step.

He opened the door, and the sudden white light from the corridor hurt her eyes so much that she had to close them and reach out not to walk into something. Bill took her arm and led her out of the corridor, and as they turned right, she recognised the place. They were in the “forbidden corridor.” Ellie remembered there were about six rooms there, three on each side. Maybe one is icy the others are not?

Bill led her back to her room and told her to sit tight, that her troopmates will be back in a few minutes due to lunch break.

“Bill, I– I really don’t want to get you into trouble.”

“Ellie, calm down. You won’t. But remember what you promised. If I hear anything about you, anything that you did that would have broken your promise, I can’t help you anymore.”

Ellie was nodding while he talked. “Yes. I know.”

“Good. I’ll find you if I have anything but don’t come looking for me! Also, do not talk about this to anyone. No one.”

“Not even Lucas?”

Bill hesitated before answering. “Not even Lucas. The more people know, the bigger the chance of us – _all_ of us – getting caught.”

Not being able to say anything, Ellie just nodded. She heard the bell sounding, indicating the start of the lunch break. She looked at Bill as he left then she sat down on her bed, her head in her hands. Being too close to her body, Ellie smelled how stinky she was, so she grabbed some fresh clothes and hurried into the bathroom before any of them came back and saw her.

She didn’t know how to get ready for meeting them after disappearing last night. And what would she even say to Lucas when she saw him next? Would she keep her mouth shut just as she promised Bill, or tell him? Ellie was thinking of her dilemma while she was taking a quick shower.

***

Ellie took her time washing, but not too long so she would miss lunch. When she was back in the room, behind her, she heard a voice say, “Oh, so, you _are_ alive.”

It was Liam. He said it more to himself or Billie than to Ellie, but hearing his voice made her jump and shut her locker door louder than she wanted to, out of reflex. She didn’t see that Liam and Billie were here, leaning against the lockers on their side, only when she turned around. “Where were you last night and this morning?” He tilted his head, pretending interest, but his voice was demanding.

Ellie collected herself and dismissed her frightened look. “Why would I tell you? It’s none of your business.” She turned back to her locker, and opening it again, she continued to clean up, putting everything into its neat pile. She heard footsteps behind her then her bed creaked as one of them sat down.

“What?” she rolled her eyes, giving him a look.

“I don’t believe you,” Liam said.

“Yeah,” Billie nodded wildly.

Sighing, she put the shirt down and turned around. “I don’t care what you believe.” Ellie shook her head. “I don’t go sticking _my_ nose into _your_ business.”

“Well ...” He put his hands behind his back and turned away from her, smiling. Ellie crossed her arms. “Since you didn’t give me a straight answer, I’m free to believe and spread anything that I thought has happened last night and this morning.”

Ellie shrugged, but it wasn’t as leisurely as she wanted it to be. “Which part of ‘I don’t care’ did you not understand?” She asked without turning back. “Everyone already doesn’t like me, so spreading whatever nonsense you would, wouldn’t change a thing.”

“Not even if I say you spent the night with an officer?” He raised an eyebrow and Billie looked at Ellie, mirroring Liam’s expression.

Ellie turned around and crossed her arms, feeling a bit triumphant. “That would get _you_ into trouble for the accusation of an officer that he would lower himself to the level of doing that with a Private.” He laughed, but before he could continue, she did. “There are cameras everywhere in case you haven’t noticed, and I was away from the quarter, _supervised_ if you must know. And now, if you’ll excuse me,” she closed the locker after she grabbed her jacket, “I want to have lunch while I still can.” Ellie slipped past him, nudging his shoulder, and went out of the room before Liam could’ve said a thing.

Ellie didn’t even want to know what else was going on in his head.

Stepping into the dining hall, she spotted Erik right away, about to sit down. His expression was so sad that she could feel it even in this distance. Ellie could guess why. He probably thinks he lost her too since he doesn’t know what happened last night, only that she went to meet with Lucas.

Ellie went and got food and joined Erik as soon as she could, but still, he was half-way through his meal by the time she sat down. When she did, he looked up to see who sat down. When Erik processed that it was Ellie, his eyes lit up, and he started signing wildly about how happy he was to see her and that he was so worried and didn’t know what happened. Erik was so happy to see her that he was signing so fast, too fast for her to comprehend more than the basis, that he was happy to see her and angry with her for having done this.

“Calm down!” Ellie smiled. “I’ll explain everything, but right now, I am starving,” she signed and started eating. As quickly as she could, she inhaled her food, and they still had time before the end of lunch, so she began to tell yesterday’s story.

At the part when she was telling him they put her into the icy room, he covered his eyes with his hands. Ellie chuckled, as he was shaking his head, waiting for him to calm down so she could continue. She tapped his shoulder, and he peeked out from in-between his fingers.

“Can I continue?” Ellie asked, smiling. He took a deep breath and nodded. “So, they put me in there, and long story short, I ended up being in there for thirty minutes.” He put a hand up, wanting to say something.

“How did you get out?”

“Sergeant Hastings got me out. He was on duty to get me out after an hour, but he couldn’t wait that long. I was lucky; otherwise, I think I would have frozen to death if there was somebody else, and they would have waited the hour before getting me out.”

“Don’t say that,” Erik replied and covered his eyes again for a moment. “And what now?” he asked after.

The bell sounded, and she started getting up, Erik copying her. They took their trays back and headed down the corridor, to their – now indoor – combat session, she continued.

“Now, I’ll wait for tomorrow night to meet with Lucas, and I will tell him what happened.”

“You will continue this!?”

Ellie sighed, remembering her promise to Bill, which she was unsure about now. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean?” Erik frowned.

“I promised B– Sergeant Hastings that I wouldn’t do anything, but he promised he would do everything he can to help us while staying under the radar.”

“Why did you sign ‘B?’” he asked.

They stopped because others were waiting outside the gym, and she turned to Erik. “Because his name is Bill. But of course, I’m not supposed to call him Bill, that was just an exception.”

“Single. File.” Corporal Higgins thundered down the corridor and stopped before the door, turning to face them. Ellie quickly ushered Erik behind her, not having enough time to sign, but he’d see everyone doing it, so she guessed it was clear.

When Corporal Higgins was satisfied with them being in a single file, he opened the door, and they marched in. Ellie didn’t notice Liam and Billie being a few people in front of her, only when Billie looked back with a smirk.

Walking into the room and standing on the yellow line while standing side by side to the others, Corporal Higgins walked in front of them. When his gaze fell on Ellie, she saw surprise in his eyes, then realisation, and an ever so small satisfactory smirk in the corner of his mouth.

“Today we’re focusing on team building. As individuals, you are not as pathetic as you were, but still not– Ashton, what the hell are you doing?”

“Corporal, sir, do you want Erik to know what you are telling us? Because this is the only way he’ll know.” Both of them were referring to Ellie starting to sign to Erik as soon as the corporal began talking.

Ellie saw the debate in him, in his eyes, and a few seconds later, he looked back up ahead and continued.

“–but you’re still not on a desirable level, and that is why, this week, we are focusing on team building – because as much as you need to know how to be independent, you need to learn to work as a _team_. Let’s go!”

Today was so physically demanding that Ellie ached and could hardly walk by the time they were finished. The training included going over a wall with the help of your teammates – they did this about five times because the corporal didn’t like the way they did it –, and lifting a sort of pole that you’d see holding a flag, just not as tall. However, the worst of them all was when six people held three poles making a three-step staircase, and you had to walk over it as if it was an actual one. Ellie thought they did this exercise enough times that almost everyone got a turn in holding it as well as going over it; but holding the pole is one thing, holding the people’s weight as well is another, however.

Going back to their room, Erik and Ellie didn’t talk because their arms were aching – they signed this much to each other. Ellie was thinking about Lucas and their meeting tomorrow. How is she going to tell him what happened? _Should_ she tell him? Should she go to the meeting at all? Should she – they – continue this? Ellie promised not to, but she’s not sure how long it would take for Bill to find what they are looking for. Ellie went to sleep with all the thousands of questions circling in her mind.


	16. THIRTEEN

When Ellie woke up the next morning, she saw everyone was still sleeping. She looked at the clock, and it was the time they would wake up, but no one did.

 _“What was happening?”_ she thought, panic rising in her.

Ellie got out from under her covers and quietly walked over to Erik. Crouching beside his bed, she gently shook him awake.

She waited until he rubbed his eyes and finally focused on her.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Why is everyone still sleeping?” she asked.

He laid back on his bed, and covered his eyes, clearly still half-asleep. “We have the first Sunday of every month off as a free day to do whatever,” he said after, but she held her frown.

“I didn’t know this,” Ellie told him.

“The man who was signing for me before told me, and the possible dates. That’s how I know.” He shrugged. “There is no training, we can do what we want, though every rule still applies.”

“So, it’s a regular day, but without the training?” Ellie asked back to clarify.

“Yes. You can sleep until whatever time you want, you can do whatever you want. If you want to train, you can. If you want to read, you can. But all the restrictions and rules still apply.”

Ellie let out a long breath that cleared her anxiousness away. “Thanks, Erik.” He put his thumb up and went back to sleep.

Ellie went back to her bed and grabbing her clothes, she went to the bathroom. Emerging a few minutes later, she saw only two girls were up, everyone else was sleeping. Interestingly, the lights were on as usual, but it still didn’t bother the ones sleeping.

Unnoticed by the two girls chatting quietly, she exited the room and headed for breakfast. Only while holding her tray did Ellie notice how sore her arms were from yesterday. As well as her back.

Breakfast that day was no different from any other day, but the atmosphere in the dining hall was. There were only about three dozen people there, instead of the usual full house. Ellie chose a seat from which she could see the entire hall and the entrance while she’ll remain unnoticed.

She took her time eating, knowing she had nowhere to be while thinking about her doubts from yesterday. As soon as she realised there was no more food on her plate and stood up, and she had an idea.

Ellie didn’t remember them saying that they needed to stay in their quarters, not just for this free day, but for regular days. _Or did they?_ Because the day before yesterday was different, they stepped on ground that was restricted, they could’ve seen that. But going to visit your friend at another side of the building ...

Ellie decided.

Today, she’d visit Lucas.

As she turned down the corridor leading back to the main door, she tried to think where from there. When she arrived at the place where she and Lucas got separated, she turned down the hallway where he went.

It was a long hallway, with only the lights’ buzzing and her footsteps echoing. If she were to get caught here, there would be no escaping. The hall turned left, and she followed it, though it was only a short one because then it continued ahead or left.

From the left, she could hear conversations, and ahead she could see the first set of stairs she ever saw in here. It seemed obvious to turn left, so she did, though there was a fifty-fifty chance it was not a good decision and this hit her a second before she came upon a sort of lounge area. It wasn’t very comfortable, but there were tables and chairs, and people chatting while sitting on the tables and chairs lazily. She saw two doors on either side and the path continuing ahead.

Before she could do anything or move anywhere, someone came up next to her. It wasn’t Lucas, but he leaned in closer and whispered, “Brave of you to risk coming here. Who are you looking for?”

Ellie debated telling him. He looked like he did care at least enough for her to have almost told him, had Lucas not come up behind him. He put a firm hand on his shoulder and looked in his eyes.

“Dalton, go and bother someone else,” he said, smiling. Dalton got the message and left to join a group by the door, but he didn’t take his eyes off Ellie and Lucas. “Come, I’ll take you back to your quarters.”

“These new recruits, getting lost every time, don’t they?” Ellie heard Dalton say to the group then looked back to them.

“Turn around and don’t look back,” Lucas hissed through his teeth. “Look ahead and look lost and confused.” Which to Ellie meant to do nothing because she was already confused and lost by what just happened.

Lucas took her up the stairs she saw, and into the first room. She didn’t even have the time to look around, to take in where they were before he shoved her in the room and closed the door behind him.

They were in a small room with four beds, made up like hers. And this room had a window! Barred up with bars as thick as her fingers, but at least it was a window.

“Have you absolutely lost your mind!?” Lucas shouted at her.

“I ju–”

“I knew you were reckless sometimes, but this was by far the _worst_ idea you’ve _ever_ had! The captain was just down the hall in a meeting! He would not have believed you were a lost recruit, and yes we do get recruits lost because the smaller ones’ quarter is nearby,” he added the last part quieter. “You would have gotten into some _serious_ trouble!”

“I couldn’t have gotten into more trouble than I’m in already! And I dared to think you’d be happy to see me. Oh, by the way, I had news. But now I’m not sure if I’d tell you ... You know what? You’re right. I shouldn’t be here. Let me go back, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Lucas was just staring at her, stunned, while she was talking but recovered enough to block her way to the door when she headed for it. Holding her shoulders gently, he stopped her.

“Let me go. Please,” Ellie added, softer.

“Tell me.”

Ellie kept quiet.

“Tell me, please! I’m sorry for shouting at you, but tell me, what did they do to you?” His grip hardened on her shoulder in a way she knew he was worried about her, not in a way that would hurt her.

“They put me in a room,” she started, and he was listening, taking in every word she said while looking her up and down, searching for any bruises or marks. “A room filled with ice.”

He let her arm go suddenly, and the sudden loss of his touch felt stinging to Ellie.

“What did you do?” he asked, his eyes filled with terror. Ellie didn’t say anything. “ _What did you do_ , Ellie? They don’t just put people in the ice room for nothing!”

“I did as you told me!” She raised her voice to match his anger that sprouted from his fear but then sighed and continued in her regular tone. “I saw someone come, I knocked on the door for you as you told me to, but I had to improvise … and it didn’t turn out to be successful. Someone came down the corridor, and they saw me, and it just happened to be the captain and ended up putting me in the ice room.” She said quickly towards the end then broke down to tears. Lucas saw this, saw how vulnerable she was and just before she collapsed from the weight-loss of this information, he stepped to hold her, to comfort her.

“Shhh. Shhh. All right. I’m sorry, Ellie. Sorry for shouting.”

“I was silly. I wasn’t listening to anyone. I was following my own mind instead of every single person I’ve ever met here. You, Erik, Corporal Higgins, Liam, Bill, the captain–” Ellie was fully crying now, not trying to hold back while they were sitting on the floor, and Lucas was holding her close.

“Who’s Bill?”

She wiped her eyes before she answered. “Sergeant Hastings. He is the one who got me out of the ice room before time. He is helping us, Lucas.” Elling looked up at him. “He is one of the good ones.”

“Are you sure? How do you know?”

“He didn’t even know that the people here were kidnapped kids. Genuinely.” Ellie broke away from Lucas. “He told me not to do anything stupid either, or to tell you what I just told you because the more people know this, the easier it is for all of us to get caught.”

“And what exactly did he say; how is he going to help us?”

“He said he has access to most of the rooms here, so I assume he is going to go look for the file.” She shrugged. “I don’t know exactly what I am looking for, either. Either something about my brother, a file or something, or a map of the other camps. _Anything_ really. But I realise now that I can’t do it alone. I can’t follow my own mind anymore.” She looked at Lucas. “But we can’t do it together either. Our only chance is to trust him. I mean, what can we do? Sneak around for half an hour every other day and hope we don’t get caught?”

Lucas remained silent, processing and thinking. “How did you find me?” he asked a few moments later.

“What?”

“You’ve never been to this area. How did you find me?”

“Uh, I followed the hallway, and when it turned two ways, I listened. I heard chatter and guessed it might be you. If not ... well, that would have been awkward.”

He chuckled, shaking his head. “You are crazy, you know that?” He brushed her hair out of her face. “You should be wearing your hair up,” he said softly.

“But I don’t have training today.”

Lucas scoffed and shook his head, smiling and looking down.

“Come on, let’s go back to your quarter.” He was standing up, but Ellie remained sitting on the floor. “Ellie?”

“Why? Why do I have to?”

“As much as I’d like to have you in my room a little longer, someone might come in, and I’d rather spare you the follow-up questions.” He explained, side-smiling. Extending a hand towards her, he helped her up.

Together they exited Lucas’s room – Ellie processing this fact in the meanwhile – and went back downstairs without coming across anybody.

“That Dalton guy,” Ellie started.

“Don’t worry about him. He likes to tease people.” Lucas cut in.

“No, uh ... was he one of them who welcomed you back?” she ended up asking. Lucas lifted his head up, and the answer was clear to Ellie without him saying a word, and she looked back ahead, not saying anything else.

“He was. About all the boys in my troop were involved,” he said in the end. “And even stranger, two of the ones I escaped with were back here, looking the same as I do now.” He motioned to his face, still a bit colourful, but mainly yellow and purple.

“That’s strange. How are they back if they successfully escaped with you a year ago?” Ellie was contemplating.

“Well, then it wasn’t as successful, I guess. There was only one other person with us, apart from our Lieutenant, but I think he didn’t make it then. He was in a bit of a rougher shape by the time we made it out, and I wasn’t sure if he would live.”

“Is your Lieutenant here too?”

“I haven’t seen him, but if I do, I will have a word with him,” he said, looking into the distance.

When they turned around a corner, Lucas suddenly stopped.

Ellie almost walked into him, and to tell him off, she stepped out from behind him and saw why he stopped. Suddenly, telling him off was no longer important.

The captain and an officer saw them and were heading their way.

“Private Night, you are dismissed.” He said straight away to him, then turned to Ellie. “Follow me. I have received something I wanted to show you.” The captain spoke to Ellie and stepped beside her. Placing a hand on her back, he started guiding her where he wanted to go, while she took one last glance behind her at Lucas’s retreating figure.

“Oh, it’s all right. No harm would come to you or your friend. I think you’ve had enough of that by now, no?”

Ellie felt like this was a question she had to answer, so she just nodded, being afraid her voice would betray her if she spoke.

The captain walked her to an office, looking the same from the outside as the other doors did. To open the door, he had to take his hand away from Ellie, which she took gladly for his hand on her back felt like a plague spreading across her. He did not want him to touch her, _ever again_.

As he opened the door with his card, and they stepped in, Ellie saw that this was just a regular office with two desks and chairs, two computers and the same barred window she saw in Lucas’s room. Some filing cabinets in the corners and a coffee machine as well.

There was a door on the left, and they stepped through it. In this room, there was an eight-seat table in the middle and a Tv in the middle of the long wall. The officer with them stepped to the Tv, and after turning it on, he handed something to the captain. The captain went to the Tv and did something Ellie couldn’t see because the captain was blocking her view.

While he was occupied, Ellie was looking around, realising that her only way out of there was the doors they came in through. Even though there were only the captain and that one officer in there with her, she still doubted she could escape from this room.

“There,” the captain said as he straightened up and turned to Ellie. “Now, I have received this from a colleague of mine just today. It was meant to be here earlier but– Never mind that. I assume,” he took a step towards her, “that your short time spent in that room did not change your mind about ... Well, whatever was on your mind and still is. Am I correct?”

Ellie just straightened up and looked him in the eye without a word.

“Thought so. And that’s why,” the captain turned back to the Tv, “that’s why I’m showing you this right now. Maybe _this_ will change your mind.” He pressed a button on a remote, and at first, a grainy picture came up, but after he pressed another button while smirking towards the Tv, a picture of a grey room came up.

There were streaks of light on the floor, possibly from a window. Ellie only saw the figure crouching in the corner of the picture when it moved. Frowning, she was watching while the officer was watching her.

The sound of a door opening and closing was heard, then someone came into view. Ellie could only see the person from the back, but she knew it was an officer by his uniform. He approached the figure and pulled it up. Because of the way they were standing, in the light of the window, Ellie saw the face of the figure, and as soon as she saw it, she grabbed the chair in front of her murmuring “no, no, no, no, no.”

The captain turned and looked at her, smirking, but Ellie’s eyes were glued to the screen as she was gripping the chair. The officer was poised to stop her from doing anything while he was watching her.

There was no sound on the video now, which at first, she found strange, but she could see that the officer was talking to Jason on the recording. Jason was shaking his head, but Ellie wasn’t sure why. He was deaf, he couldn’t have heard what he was saying to him, and the officer was a hundred per cent not signing. Now the officer was shaking him as if wanting him to answer, but Jason was looking down now.

“Please, don’t hurt him!” Ellie said not quietly, but quieter than usual.

The captain looked back at her again. “Just watch.” He turned back and crossed his arms.

The officer let go of Jason now and hit him in the face. Ellie covered her mouth, and she was repeating ‘no’ while tearing up. Jason fell to the ground, and the officer leaned over him, telling him something that he probably enjoyed saying, from the way he was holding himself.

“Please. No.”

None of them in the room answered her as she half-watched the officer continue. The captain stepped to her when he noticed she wasn’t watching and grabbed her jaw and turned her head to the screen.

“You’re going to watch it. You’re going to watch it because this is what will happen every time you misbehave. Your little brother will suffer again and again and again. Now, this was filmed before you came here, he is punishing him for being disobedient. Still, it is a great lesson for you not to do anything stupid again.” While he was talking, she was looking at the screen through her tears, still able to make the blurs out. “Am I understood?”

Ellie nodded.

“Are you going to disobey your superiors and follow your own mind here?”

“No,” she tried to say. The captain took his hand away, and the video stopped and turned black, ending.

“I didn’t hear you.”

“No, sir,” she started, “I will not do anything stupid.”

“Excellent.”

“If you promise not to hurt my brother anymore,” she added, and the captain looked at her stunned.

“Your brother won’t be harmed _if_ you behave,” he said.

Knowing she won’t win, she kept quiet, accepting his terms.

“May I ask a question, captain?” After a moment, he nodded, allowing her. “Why are you so interested in me, sir? You could’ve left me there when you found Lucas, but you brought me in. And now you are keen on bending me to your will, willing to blackmail me with my brother to do so. _Why?_ What am I to you than another soldier?”

“You will get your answers when you deserve them. For now, all you need to know is that if you disobey, your brother will pay the price,” he finished and nodded to the officer. He grabbed Ellie’s arm and led her out of the room.

He led her to her quarter and watched her step in. Only the girls were in the room, talking as usual, not paying attention to her. Ellie wondered where the boys could be, but her guess was either the gym or ... the gym. Having no clue what to do, she went to her bed and laid on top, crying herself to a short nap.

***

Ellie woke up to Erik shaking her. Rubbing her eyes, she shook her head, saying she didn’t understand what he was signing. He told her again.

“You disappeared,” he signed. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” she answered as she sat up. “I went to see Lucas.”

“And?”

“We talked. Then I came back,” Ellie lied. She did not want to get Erik into trouble too. And given what they did with Jason, just because he was “disobedient,” she could’ve imagined Erik would share the same fate.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” He looked truly concerned.

“I am,” Ellie shook him off. “But what happened to you? When I came back, none of the boys were here.” She smiled, trying to ease the atmosphere.

“Oh, I went to the dining hall late, I just got back. I don’t know about the others.”

Ellie nodded for not finding the right words to answer.

“Do you want to go to practice?” Erik asked, excited. “The indoor shooting range is open, I checked on my way back, but I didn’t want to go alone.”

“We’re allowed?” Ellie frowned.

“Yes. I mean, the woman who teaches us is in there. I guess we could ask.” He shrugged.

“Let’s go then. I don’t know what else to do.” She stood up, and Ellie followed Erik.

***

The woman who was at the indoor shooting range was indeed the same one who taught them, and she happily took Ellie and Erik into practice. She gave them each a rifle, and they were told they had to make sure everything was okay with it before they could’ve started shooting.

Ellie finished checking it before Erik and as she stepped to the table and aimed at the target. Hitting the side, she adjusted her position and the rifle and shot again. Ellie hit closer to the middle now but still not good. She adjusted herself and the rifle again and aimed. Bullseye. She shot again; bullseye. She hit the bullseye two more times, and as she was reloading, the woman walked up to her.

“I’ve seen you during practice too, being good, but I need to say, you are a natural. Have you ever shot a rifle before?”

“No, ma’am. Not before I came here.”

“Try this.” She handed her a pistol. “See if you are just as good with something smaller as you are with something big.”

Without a word, Ellie stepped into a position she thought was correct, but wasn’t. The woman needed to correct her before she could’ve started. When she was standing in the right position, Ellie shot bullet after bullet, adjusting her stance and how she held the gun between each shot, and she hit bullseye three times out of eight.

The woman took the gun from her as she was done and handed her a different type of rifle than the one they used. She stepped into the position she was standing in the beginning and shot the rounds. Because this weapon was similar to the first one, she didn’t have a hard time finding the bullseye.

When she put the weapon down, she saw that the woman was helping Erik. She watched him nod as she corrected him, all without saying a word.

She was different from the others. Not in kindness or roughness, but she had a different approach to people. Ellie admitted, she was kinder right now than she was during practice, but that could be understood.

When Erik nodded, meaning he got it, she turned back to Ellie. “As I said, you are a natural with these weapons. Would you like to pursue a career that focuses on this skill of yours?”

Ellie frowned. “What career?”

“I would have to talk to him about it, but I’m sure he will let you ascend a level to train,” the woman continued.

“Wait. Who is ‘he?’” Ellie was getting confused, and panic started to build up in her.

“Don’t worry, I will sort it out for you.” She patted her on the shoulder, and as she stepped away from her to Erik, Ellie saw him look at them questioningly, wanting to know what they talked about.

“She wants me to do this as a career,” she signed, frowning, while the woman stepped away to get more bullets for Erik.

“What? Shooting?” he asked back.

Ellie nodded. “But she mentioned a man she needed to talk with, and I’m afraid it’s the captain. What if he will get angry when he hears–” She stopped when the woman came back, not looking at Ellie, but focusing on Erik.

They stayed there for a bit more before Erik said he’d leave now. Ellie didn’t know if it was because of her or because he really did want to go.

“I don’t think you should be afraid of the captain,” Erik started. “I mean, you are good at something, and if your instructor says you’re good, and she suggests you do this, then he can’t really hold you back.”

“I don’t follow.” Ellie replied, half because she stopped paying attention after he said, “you shouldn’t be afraid of the captain.”

“You are good at shooting. She thinks so at least. And she is trustworthy in the eyes of the captain, so he is going to be convinced by her. Whatever she wants you to do with this,” he motioned around, meaning my shooting skill, “will probably happen because she believes in you, and the captain will believe her.”

“And I believe you.” Ellie smiled. “She did say something about ‘ascending a level.’” Ellie shrugged, and Erik copied her, also not knowing what that could’ve meant.

Erik and Ellie spent the rest of the day together. He showed her around where they could go, and commented on the area, or what he saw or heard happen here that was worth mentioning. He did a good job of distracting Ellie from what happened earlier. She didn’t even think of it until she was in bed again, ready for the next day.


	17. FOURTEEN

“Up, up, up, and out in five!” Officer Lamy came in and shouted, elongating the word “five,” followed by an air horn.

You could hear some muffled groaning, but all that was in Ellie’s mind is what happened a week ago. She couldn’t risk not doing what they told her, she couldn’t risk doing anything of her own otherwise, her brother will pay the price. She hasn’t told anyone, not even Lucas, because she was afraid of what would happen next. She expected to be watched, and if so, this was the best thing she could do: nothing.

Lucas and Ellie still met up every two days as they planned – except for that time she went over to Lucas since that happened to be their meeting day, but they already met up. She was tempted to tell him multiple times but reminded herself every time.

She wished she could get out of this somehow. Plans of what to do and how to do it were circling her mind every night before she went to sleep. All she could think about was her brother – what happened to him and what could even if Ellie doesn’t do anything.

All these thoughts circled in her mind while she was dressing and making her bed. Officer Lamy came in at the right time, and even though some of the people were only almost done with their beds, he waited a minute before he shouted, “Go! Go! Go!”

They were ushered to the outdoor field where Ellie saw the course they went through before, but it was slightly changed now. There were targets at the end, as well as the order of the course has been altered. Ellie spotted that another group of somewhat terrified, similar-aged girls and boys were coming too.

“Listen up, Crow Bags!” Corporal Higgins started. “Today’s course will determine your futures. All your instructors have decided to put you through this little test to see if you will level up or stay where you are until next year.” He paused to let the words sink in. As Ellie was standing in the back, behind everybody, she could sign to Erik what he was saying. However, still, when he spotted her, Ellie saw annoyance in his eyes.

“You will be assessed based on your performance as well as your time.” He paused again and took a few steps. “You _can_ fail this, but if somehow you manage to pass, you will be put into your new specialised troop. Am I understood?”

“Yes, sir!” They all shouted.

“Excellent. Now, since this is _timed_ , two people will go in one round while the rest wait patiently for their turn! Officer Lamy and Sergeant Hastings will be the ones timing you, Sergeant White and I will be assessing your performances,” he finished.

Ellie didn’t see Sergeant White – who turned out to be the shooting instructor – and Bill, walk up to the other two men at the front, only when they were there. She didn’t know how she felt about him being there.

Corporal Higgins called out their names to step up to the line, and surprisingly to Ellie, no one had said a word since they left their rooms. She looked up at the grey cloud-covered sky and hoped for a little sunshine, for she was the first to go with a boy she never met.

“Ready? Set! Go,” he shouted. Timer buttons were pressed, and the two of them were off.

The first thing they had to get through was a pool of mud with a rope hanging down in the middle from a wooden fixture. As Ellie was running, she already had a plan in her mind, and when the boy stopped at the edge, Ellie ran and jumped, praying she jumped correctly to reach the rope.

And she did.

She swung a bit before she could jump off at the other side and continued running; not even looking back at the boy.

The next obstacle was crawling through tunnels that were half-submerged in water. Ellie slowed down and stepping through the knee-high water, she fought through to the tunnel. On her hands and knees, she crawled through. Standing up as soon as she was out the other end, panting, wet and walking slower than before from exhaustion, but she walked out of the water and continued.

The next obstacle was three logs, each set up a bit higher than the other. Ellie knew what she needed to do, and starting to run again, she stepped on the first, second, then the third and jumped off but not landing how she wanted to and for a second pain shot through her ankle. She heard splashes behind her, and glanced back, seeing the boy exit the tunnel.

She stood up, shaking the bad landing off, and approached the barbed wire which she needed to crawl under. She was moving as fast as she could, but she saw the boy catching up to her. The last obstacle before the shooting range was some logs in the water.

Ellie assumed she’d need to jump over them since they were set low, in the water. The water made it harder to move, but she managed, and they arrived at the shooting range together.

There, they needed to assemble a rifle. Collecting everything she knew of assembling a rifle, Ellie focused so hard, everything around her disappeared. When she assembled it, she loaded it and shot all the bullets at the target. The first one went into the target man’s shoulder, but the rest into his chest and head.

Putting it down, she quickly glanced around and saw where she needed to go and ran for it as fast as she could. The boy was still shooting his last bullets, but Ellie won. Running past Offer Lamy and Bill, she collapsed on her knees, breathing heavily. Two seconds later she saw the boy lay down on the ground next to her, also breathing heavily.

“You’re fast,” he said, and Ellie looked at him, smiling.

“You gave me a reason to be.”

She stood up and helped him up too. The cold of his hands reminded her of _that_ time. Still, she shook it off because there were too many people around who’d notice a change in her expression. After all, from that, her thoughts travelled to Jason, and they wouldn’t have stopped.

They were allowed to rest until the rest of the people did their turns. Sitting on the grass in her wet clothes weren’t too nice, but at least it wasn’t raining, and the wind wasn’t blowing.

None of them got told their times or how they did, but Ellie guessed they’d find out one way or another and sooner rather than later.

When there were only three pairs left, two other groups came in. Ellie only noticed this when the still panting Erik pointed towards them. She was looking for a familiar face, and she found it in the form of Dalton. She kept on looking, but Erik drew her attention to tell her something.

“He is at the back.”

Ellie looked at the back, and indeed Lucas was there, walking behind everyone. She didn’t think they’re going to be here since Lucas joined here years ago, Ellie would’ve thought they went through this already maybe. That Lucas was already in a “specialised troop” – as the corporal put it.

“Listen up,” Sergeant White started. “Whoever hears his or her name, comes and stands behind me. Whoever doesn’t, stays where they are and waits.” She looked down to her paper, and without looking up, she started calling out names.

Ellie’s was among the five she called out.

“Same goes here,” Bill continued and said six more names. All those people who he called out – including Liam – stood behind him. “Whoever didn’t hear their names, stays here with Corporal Higgins and Officer Lamy.” He turned to his group. “Follow me.”

Ellie spotted Lucas looking at her with an unreadable expression to which she answered with a frown.

Sergeant White turned to them too and waved them to follow her. Ellie looked at Erik, who remained where he was since his name didn’t get called out.

“No,” she whispered with a breaking heart.

She just realised.

_They were separating them._

“No, no, no, _no_!” She kept on whispering with a frown and a breaking heart.

They weren’t going to see each other again, she realised, but what hurt her the most is that Erik is left with no translator, like last time. That’s what clenched Ellie’s heart the most.

She turned to look at Lucas again, but he was blocked by his troopmates moving to line up at the starting line as Ellie’s troop did. She tried to see better, but someone bumped into her and forced her to look away and ahead instead.

She couldn’t even look back to Erik, to see him, after that. He was probably just as panicked as Ellie was, she imagined.

The five followed the sergeant to a different part of the fortress. Similarly, on the ground floor – or near it, as before – but nowhere near Lucas’s quarter or Ellie’s old one. This part looked a bit nicer and more modern.

She led them to a room with the painted number 519 on it. Ellie suddenly remembered that she didn’t see any painted-on numbers when she visited Lucas’s quarters.

“We have five openings, that’s why I’ve chosen you. This will be your room for three of you and this one,” she pointed to the one opposite it, to room 520, “will be the room for two of you. Decide amongst yourselves, but there will be five-five people in each room. Your daily training will mostly include shooting and learning about all kinds of different weapons. Still, it will also include physical training too. Any questions?”

“Why us?” Ellie asked, putting her hand up, but not waiting for her to grant permission to speak. She regretted it instantly because she thought the woman would reprimand her for it.

“Good question,” she started, and Ellie let her breath out that she was holding in fear. “All of your performances were excellent in the past weeks as we were monitoring you. Five places from this troop opened up, and I was tasked with finding replacements,” she finished.

“What happened with those people?” one girl asked.

“That’s classified.”

They all nodded, accepting, and no other questions were asked. Since Ellie didn’t think any of them really cared which room they got, and none of them knew each other, Ellie and two other girls went to the room on the left, into room 519, and the other two went into room 520 on the right.

The room was similar to the one she had, but this had a window like Lucas’s room. Same finger-thick bars, but a window nevertheless. There were five beds, yes, three on the left and two on the right with the same lockers in-between the beds Ellie previously had. There was a bed free on the side where there were three beds, and Ellie decided to take that one, while the other two girls took the ones opposite.

“Now what do we do?” one of them asked.

The girl next to her shrugged. “She didn’t say we needed to go anywhere. Should we just stay here until lunch?”

“It’s in a few minutes anyway, we might as well,” Ellie said, after looking at the clock above the door. It looked the same as the one in her old room, but now she did spot the little black dot near it. The camera. She felt disgusted as well as suddenly naked, knowing someone was watching them.

“I’m Amanda, by the way,” said the girl who asked what they should do. Ellie shuddered when she spoke, returning to the room from her thoughts.

“Rachel,” said the other one.

“Ellie.”

“You’re the one who talked with the deaf guy,” Rachel said.

She nodded. “Yes.”

“I found it nice of you to do that.” Ellie looked aside, not knowing what to answer. She also just remembered that Rachel was in her previous troop too, they just never talked.

“I don’t like how they zombify almost everyone and break the rest if they don’t comply,” Amanda started.

Ellie was now looking down, too many memories crossing her mind. Mainly the most recent one. A thought, a terrifying thought crossed her mind and planted itself there.

The bell sounded, and Rachel and Amanda stood up. “Are you coming, Ellie?”

She shook her head to try to clear it and stood up. “Yeah, let’s go.”

“Don’t worry, he is going to be fine,” Rachel walked up next to Ellie and put a hand on her shoulder. “He was doing all right before you came here.”

“I know,” Ellie started. “But he wouldn’t understand anything again and fall back. They would be hard on him again and punish him like– Ah. I’m just sad, right now, that’s all.” She wasn’t lying, but this wasn’t the thought on her mind, this wasn’t the one that returned now, making her heart beat faster.

“For every dark night, there is a lighter day ahead,” Amanda commented without looking back.

Rachel snorted. “Wow, that was very spiritual.”

Amanda just shrugged, but Ellie smiled. She was feeling happy but guilty at the same time because she felt like the three of them could be friends.

Ellie was feeling guilty because she knew if she didn’t behave, if she put even one hair out of line, they were going to punish Jason. And for this not to happen, she knew what would happen to her.

She would become one of the zombified people.

***

On their way to get lunch, while Rachel and Amanda were getting to know the other two girls, Ellie walked behind them, scanning the corridors and the dining hall for either Lucas or Erik.

Neither of them was there.

She thought Lucas might have had an earlier lunch – or will have a later one – because his group only started the course when Ellie left.

Erik, however, finished when she left but is not here yet. What could have happened to him? Ellie’s eyes widened as thoughts were crisscrossing her mind and was only back in the dining hall when Rachel put a hand on her shoulder.

“Ellie!”

“There she is,” one of the two stranger girls said.

“Where did you go? You looked like you saw a ghost.” Amanda linked arms with her, and they walked over to the counter.

Ellie shook her head. “I’m fine now. Just ... all this, I guess.”

“I can’t even imagine how hard it must be. But,” Amanda stopped and held Ellie’s shoulders with both her hands and looked at her, worried. “You need to, I’m sorry to be this frank, but you need to forget about him. Or at least put him to the back of your mind.”

“Amanda is right, Ellie,” Rachel said a few moments later. “Erik managed before you. You mustn’t work yourself up on him too much, or it will cost you. I– I know this is all too much, and that this isn’t what you want to hear right now, but,” she looked at the others, “but we all have been in similar shoes. If not here, then– then before.”

“Listen to Rachel,” the stranger girl said. “I had to part with someone today, namely my twin sister. My heart is broken, believe me, maybe more than yours, but I know, I know it in my heart that she will be okay. As long as she doesn’t forget me, she will be, both of us will be okay. And you. You will be okay if you believe in Erik. He must be a tougher guy based on how you girls talk about him.”

Ellie sighed and looked down. “Thanks, girls.” She opened her mouth, wanting to continue her story, but decided against it and flashed a small smile instead.

The stranger girl stepped to her and held Ellie’s hand. Her dark skin was in such a contrast against Ellie’s light skin. Ellie looked in her eyes and heard it in her heart what she told her. No words were needed.

“I’m Dinah, by the way.” She smiled. “And this is Layla.” She pointed to the other stranger girl with beautiful red curls and a freckled face.

“Let’s get some food. That’ll cheer you up,” Layla said, in a still understandable but thick accent, and smiled.

***

In the afternoon, Ellie and her new troop went into the indoor gym hall where they would apparently strengthen their bond between other members. As there were still five other members whom Ellie didn’t know, this wouldn’t have hurt.

“Okay. The two rooms will be the two groups,” Sergeant White was handing out red bands to Ellie and her roommates, and yellow ones to room 520’s occupants. Ellie copied Rachel, who tied it around her upper arm. “You will each choose a weapon and, well, come and see.” She took a few steps backwards, then she turned around and walked outside through a door Ellie didn’t notice when she came in.

They followed her, of course, surprised at all this. Ellie was also surprised at how non-mean she was. She could almost say the sergeant was the nicest superior Ellie had so far – apart from Bill.

Stepping outside, Ellie realised this wasn’t an outside, but still an inside. The room was made to _look_ like the outside; an outside paintball course in fact. With fake but life-sized trees and bushes and stones and rocks. As far as Ellie could see, it had two types of terrain, a forest-y and a dryer one, like a tundra.

Sergeant White led them to a table with paintball guns laid out nicely. On a table next to it, and on a makeshift wall by it were the equipment for them.

As Ellie approached the equipment and looked around so she wouldn’t bump into someone or take someone else’s one, she realised there were no boys in this troop. Only ten girls.

She took a vest and a helmet that fit her and grabbed a gun. Sergeant White talked them through how to load it, and when they were done with everything and ready to go, she put her hand up.

“The left part of the arena is the yellow side, and the right part of the arena is the red side,” she started. “This will be an elimination game, the team who eliminates the other team first wins. If you get hit, you call that you’re out and you come back here.” She pointed around. “The game begins when both teams are set at their bases, which is the far side of your territory. You both call out when you’re ready, and then the game starts when I blow this whistle.” Ellie noticed the whistle that she took out from under her jacket.

“Some rules, because even though this is a team-building exercise as well as training, this is a game too,” she continued. “So, there will be no blind firing, and if you’re out of paintballs tough luck. Wear your safety equipment at all times and use your common sense, please!” she finished and with a wave of her hand and sent them off. “Off you go.”

“Come on,” Ellie heard the muffled voice of Dinah, and they all followed her to the far-right side.

“Layla, you will be behind us. Rachel and I will lead. Amanda and Ellie, you will be on the sides.” She nodded to them all, and no one argued with her. “Great.” Dinah nodded to herself and shouted, “Ready!” to Sergeant White.

Ellie heard a faint shout from the other team a few seconds later, then the sound of the whistle.

“Let’s move,” Rachel shouted, and the team crept towards the other side.

Ellie looked to the left, to see if she could see the sergeant, but suddenly, all she could see were endless trees. She looked left, and between the trees, she spotted the tundra.

“Ellie, Amanda, spread out,” Dinah shouted. “Try to get behind them.”

Ellie nodded to Dinah and looked at Amanda. She nodded to Ellie, and both girls started running to the left and right side of their territory, to try to get behind the Yellow Team.

Ellie heard some faint shooting sounds, and something kicked in in her. Crouching down behind a fake rock with still visible paint on it, Ellie waited a few seconds then looked out to check if any members of Team Yellow were here.

“Over there,” she heard a muffled shout and ducked back behind the rock. Waiting a few seconds and checking it again, this time no one around, she continued to head to their territory.

Soon she saw someone run among the trees a few metres away from her and she hid behind a tree. Peeking out she spotted the red band on the person’s shoulder and realised it was Amanda.

Trying to catch up to her, she continued running. Amanda spotted her and aimed at her, but Ellie pointed to her red band, and her teammate walked over.

“I don’t think any of them are here anymore,” Amanda said.

“Let’s just check quickly then go back to help them,” Ellie added.

“I go left; you go right.”

Ellie nodded and headed that way, her gun up, she searched the area for any Yellows.

Something hit the ground in front of her, and she ducked behind a bush. Peeking out in-between the leaves, she searched where it might have come from.

A few seconds later, her bush was raided, but she spotted where they were coming from. As soon as it stopped, Ellie kneeled up and looking down the barrel, she aimed to where the person was shooting from.

She stopped after a few balls, to see if they would come out. They did, and Ellie aimed and fired again, hitting the person in the arm.

The person shouted, “I’m out!” but Ellie waited if there was another person. A few seconds later, when no one was shooting at her, she continued scanning the area.

Amanda came up to her, shaking her head.

“Just that one girl then. Let’s go back.”

She took a few steps, and orange stained her chest. Ellie spun behind a tree. While Amanda grunted an “out”, Ellie peeked out to see where it came from. She saw a bush’s leaves rustle and shot at it.

When she heard no one call out, she peeked out again, but pulled her head back right away for her tree was being painted orange. She slid down along the tree and looked around for another cover. There was a rock a few metres from her and looking back at the bush, then to the rock, she took a deep breath and made a run for it.

She heard a few shots hit the ground next to her or behind her. When she was sitting on the ground, back against the rock, she checked if she had gotten hit, but luckily no.

She peeked out at the side and saw someone’s head. She drew back and got her gun ready, she looked back out and aimed at the person.

After three shots, she hit her on her helmet.

But there was another person besides the girl who was out and now walking towards the front of the arena.

This person was standing behind the tree by the bush, and Ellie spotted her peeking out for a second. Ellie didn’t shoot at her yet. She looked around, searching for the others. Both her team members and the enemy’s.

She counted at least two yellows out and at least one red who was out. That would make three yellows at most for Ellie and her remaining four teammates to eliminate.

Ellie had her gun ready, looking down at the barrel, aiming for where she remembered the person’s head was, poised to shoot.

“Come on, come out!” She mumbled, waiting for them to peek out so she could take the shot.

In a few seconds, the Yellow looked out, and Ellie pulled the trigger hitting the tree. This scared the Yellow enough to duck behind the bush and Ellie cursed while shooting at the person as they were ducking.

Ellie didn’t see if she hit the Yellow, just hoped she did, but she didn’t hear a call-out.

She must not have.

Ellie knew the person would not come out now for a few more seconds, more if they heard Ellie shoot at them, so Ellie shot a couple more balls, before standing up and as quietly as she could, she approached the bush, finger on the trigger and gun aimed at the person.

The Yellow heard Ellie and stood up, but because she didn’t have her gun up and ready to shoot like Ellie had, the Yellow’s vest was painted orange.

“Out!” the Yellow called, and with her gun kept by her side, she walked to the front.

Ellie headed back to the red territory, only to hear two short whistles. Confused, she walked to the front where now she could see the others. Looking to the sides of the arena, Ellie spotted a pair of green and painted tree-patterned curtains. She smiled for only getting it and noticing it now.

“Well done, Red Team! You’re the winners!” Sergeant White announced with a bright but not smiling face.

“What did we win?” Dinah asked, taking her helmet off. Ellie copied her as she noticed only Dinah, and she had no orange marks on them.

“You will find out tomorrow. But for today, there will be no more. Go and enjoy the rest of the day, rest because tomorrow will be an even more challenging day!”

“What–” Ellie wanted to ask what would happen tomorrow, but stopped, as to remembering the captain’s words.

The others didn’t seem to have noticed her saying anything.

Quietly, Ellie followed the others in returning the equipment and heading out through the gym they came in through.


	18. FIFTEEN

Ellie was surprised that there was no loud wake-up horn, but still, an annoying but bearable sound came from somewhere in the room. Waking up, she looked left and right, trying to find the source, but by the time she actually registered everything, it stopped.

She saw the others get dressed, and she got out of bed as well, but before she could dress up, she made her bed. It was something she needed a bit more time for than dressing up, and she found out that doing it this way was actually easier and a few seconds faster.

“Bathroom is door number 530 at the end of the corridor,” Layla reminded Rachel, Amanda and Ellie. Last night they went into the bathrooms hurriedly, that Ellie wasn’t looking where she was going and didn’t think she would’ve remembered if Layla hadn’t reminded them.

Ellie got dressed as she had made her bed and headed for the bathroom too.

Walking down the corridors with Dinah and Amanda a few minutes later, they were heading for the dining hall which, now, was a bit further away from their room.

Stepping in, at first Ellie was caught up in the conversation to notice someone watching them from the crowd. Still, as they queued up, Dinah pointed towards the person.

“I think someone’s trying to get your attention.”

Ellie turned her head and seeing what Dinah meant, her heart skipped a beat then started beating faster.

It wasn’t her turn yet, and she looked back and forth between the food and Erik.

“Go!” Amanda put a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her out of the queue, smiling along with Dinah.

As Ellie was approaching Erik, someone hurried past her, which made her stop in her tracks, and if she hadn’t done that, she wouldn’t have noticed Liam walk in. But it wasn’t Liam who caught her attention, but who was coming in after him.

 _Lucas_.

Standing a few tables away from Erik’s table and a few more tables away from the door, she was still standing, frozen.

Ellie spotted Erik look towards the door, but then back at Ellie and waved her over. Slowly walking over to her friend, Ellie kept an eye on Lucas.

He finally noticed her when she was about to sit down and motioned towards the table while sitting down. Lucas looked around, and when he saw no one, he nodded but headed to grab himself breakfast.

Erik took Ellie’s hand in his, and she looked back from Lucas to him.

“I’m so happy to see you. When you left, I didn’t know if I’m going to see you again!” Erik signed hurriedly, making Ellie concentrate hard to understand.

“Wait, wait. What about you? What happened to you after I left?” Ellie asked, instead.

“Nothing. He shouted something at us then we continued with our physical training as usual. But what happened to _you_?”

“After we left, Sergeant Whi–” Ellie stopped because Amanda put a tray down in front of her.

“We’ll be just over there,” she smiled as they walked towards the empty table two tables down on the right. Ellie mouthed a “thank you,” but Amanda just nodded, smiling.

“So, Sergeant White took us to these new rooms, where there are only five of us sleeping in there. Oh, and guess what, the whole ...,” she stopped, thinking how that word was signed, “... troop is girls only. Ten girls.”

“Really?”

“Yes, after lunch, we went paintballing. The two rooms against each other as a sort of–” Ellie stopped again because Lucas sat down next to her.

“Continue,” he nodded to her.

Ellie shook her head and tried to gather her thoughts while ignoring her fast-beating heart.

“As what?” Erik asked back.

“As a ... team-building exercise. Our team won.”

“Of course, it did!” He smiled. “Go on, catch up with him.” He motioned to Lucas. Smiling, Ellie took her fork into her hand and said, “Hi!”

“Hi! So, the ‘shooting team,’ huh?” Lucas asked back, putting a spoonful of disgusting porridge in his mouth. “Remind me never to cross you.”

Ellie laughed. “Uhh, yes. Yes, the ‘shooting team.’ And it’s only ten girls. How weird is that?”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Ellie frowned in thought. “Wait, so, if I’m in the ‘shooting team,’ then what are you in?”

Liam walked past them, nodding to Lucas.

Ellie understood straight away. “ _Liam_ joined your troop?”

Lucas shrugged. “We didn’t exactly lack numbers. Also, your sergeant friend is a new addition too. I wonder why.” He rolled his eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“He is now our new PTI.”

_“What?”_

“Yes, that means he is likely yours too.”

“Wait, hold on. What? Why would he be mine?”

“You still have combat training lessons, just less than shooting. I _don’t know why_ ,” Lucas emphasised the words, “but it’s just as likely as your shooting instructor will also be mine.”

“Okay, wow.” Ellie looked at her food. “I thought that was only a thing in the other troop– Wait! Your PTI was the same as mine while I was in the other troop. How is that then?”

“As I said, new addition: your friend.” Lucas pointed at Ellie with his spoon, but then she noticed that it wasn’t really at her, but at the door ...

... where Bill was standing, scanning the hall.

Ellie turned back quickly and looked down. Lucas followed.

“You haven’t done anything stupid, have you?” Lucas asked.

“No, I can’t. You haven’t done anything stupid either, have you?” Ellie asked back.

“No, but what do you mean ‘you can’t?’” Ellie felt his gaze on her, but she didn’t say anything just continued with her breakfast. Erik stood up and signed that he had to go, and Ellie nodded. She wanted to hug him, but now another officer joined Bill at the door, scanning the hall.

When Bill found them, he came over. Ellie and Lucas were feeling weird, thinking of reasons he could be coming over.

“Private Ashton, I need you for a moment.”

“Me?” she asked back.

“Yes. Just you.” She saw him glance at Lucas.

Ellie sighed. “Bill, this is Lucas, Lucas, this is Bill.” She said quiet enough for the neighbouring people not to hear, or not really.

Something changed about Lucas, but she couldn’t read his face.

“Fine. He can come too.”

Ellie looked at the girls, joined by Rachel and Layla at some time when Ellie didn’t notice, while Lucas stood up. Amanda looked back at her, and Ellie made a walking motion with her fingers on the table. Amanda nodded and said something to the others. Ellie stood up and with Lucas taking her tray back.

When they were outside, Lucas just stared at Bill, then looked at her.

“What?” 

“Ellie, this is the captain’s son,” Lucas said quietly, searching for her hand and dragging her back a few steps, away from Bill. 

She looked at Bill. “You are the captain’s son? Captain _Roghier’s_ son?” Ellie asked shocked, wanting Lucas to let go of her hand, but was glad he was holding her at the same time. 

“I am ... but that doesn’t change anything,” he answered, shrugging. 

“Oh-ho-ho, it changes _everything_!” Ellie spat. “How do I know the captain didn’t send you my way to _lure_ me into your arms and tell you all my secrets so that he could use them against me!? Well, you succeeded, I guess, but how do I know you’re genuine?” 

“I am! The reaction I gave you when you told me all these kids were getting kidnapped to bring them here was _real_. I did _not_ know what was going on. It’s not like my father and I talk about these things over dinner. Hell, we don’t even talk! I’m a sergeant here, and he is _the_ captain. He is only my father on paper practically– Ah, I’ll spare you the family drama,” he finished. 

At this moment, the girls went past them but didn’t look their way. They must have been heading back to their room. 

“What did you want with her?” Lucas cut in. 

“I found something I wanted to show her.” 

“No way, I’m coming too! Where she goes, I go, if _you’re_ involved.” Lucas spat at him, practically growling. 

“As you wish. Just so you know,” Bill looked at Ellie, “I am no longer responsible for what happens with you two. If you get yourselves into trouble, again, I won’t be there to help you.” 

This hurt Ellie, but she understood where he was coming from. He told her that her actions will have major consequences, and she went against him anyway. His words hurt, but she kind of expected it to happen. 

“Hateful, much?” Lucas scoffed. 

Ellie turned to him. “Lucas, I _did_ promise him not to do anything stupid or to tell you what I told you, and I broke that promise. He _did_ warn me.” Ellie added softly. 

“I did,” Bill cut in, “and because of your ignorance, I’m not risking my skin. I will take you and show you what I found, it’s safe, I swear, but the rest is up to you.” 

“Fine.” Lucas nodded before Ellie could reply. “Take us _wherever_.” He waved in the air dismissively. 

Bill sighed and nodded his head then turned around, and Ellie and Lucas followed a step behind.

“Ellie!” someone shouted after her, and she turned around.

Layla was running after her. When she stopped, she saw Bill. “Oh, I’m sorry.”

“What is it?” Ellie asked, concerned.

“I ran ahead to tell you,” she stopped to breathe because she was still panting. “We have today’s lesson outside.” Ellie didn’t say anything for a moment then Layla added, “ _Now!_ It’s about to start. We’ll make it there on time if we leave now.”

Ellie looked back at Lucas and Bill and mouthed “sorry” as she started walking with Layla.

“Why did it start earlier?”

“I don’t know.”

***

By the end of the day, Ellie’s arms were aching so bad, she had a hard time hitting the middle of the target, or the target at all. Shooting wasn’t as bad as she imagined, she thought she was getting the hang of it pretty well but doing it for the whole day ...

Since they were wearing ear-protectors during the lessons, they didn’t hear the instructor shouting, as well as because of the sound of shooting. Ellie wasn’t even sure if the woman was shouting or just observing. Still, at the end of every round, she would tell them how miserable they were, and she would go to the individuals and tell them how bad they were and at what.

She practically just fell into bed and fell asleep without a word to the other girls, but she couldn’t imagine they were in much better shapes. Or at least Amanda and Rachel since Dinah and Layla were in the “shooting troop” before the three joined.

***

A few days later, Ellie finally saw Lucas again. Their schedules made them not see each other for the past four days, and Ellie was happy they could talk again. As their break was nearing its end, they spotted Bill standing by the door. He then spotted Ellie and Lucas looking at him, and as he was leaving, behind his back, he showed three fingers, one on his left and two on his right.

“Three?” Ellie looked at Lucas, who mirrored her confused expression. “What could it mean?”

“Three ... There isn’t any ‘room 3’ here, maybe time? We’ll figure it out later because we’re going to be late.” He nodded towards the clock above the door. They had twelve minutes left of breakfast.

Ellie looked at the girls a few tables over and after Ellie and Lucas took their trays back, and they said “bye,” she went and joined them. A few minutes later, they walked down the corridor together. When they reached their rooms, there was a piece of paper on both doors saying, “0900, yesterday’s gym.”

“We got six minutes,” Rachel said, looking at her watch.

Ellie nodded. “Let’s go.”

“Does anyone remember the way?” Amanda asked, looking around.

“I sort of do,” Layla said, and Dinah nodded. “We’ve been there once before yesterday.”

“Only once?” Rachel asked while frowning.

Layla and Dinah exchanged a look.

“If whatever is happening today is the same as what happened then ...” Layla started.

“... then we’re in for a treat,” Dinah finished sarcastically.

“Great,” Ellie mumbled while Amanda and Rachel looked at each other, frowning.

When they reached the gym they were at yesterday, stepping in, they saw the other room there already, and Ellie’s heart skipped a beat upon seeing Lucas’s troop too. Liam, looking smug, stood in the front line next to Lucas, who’s eyes were sending worried vibes towards Ellie.

The five girls lined up next to their other five troopmates, and that’s when Ellie noticed the difference in numbers between the two troops. Lucas’s troop had about fifteen people, mixed genders, while Ellie’s only had ten girls, including her.

Then the door opened and in walked Bill, hurriedly.

“Sorry–” he looked at his watch. “Actually, I’m on time, and you are all early,” he finished. “Thank you, I’ll take it from here,” he said to both the troop’s officers.

As they left, Bill clapped his hands together once and all eyes were on him. “I realise the numbers differ between the two troops, but we’ll make that work. For those of you who hadn’t figured it out yet or weren’t here when this happened before: today is a combat training session between the two troops.”

Ellie’s eyes opened in realisation and in fear.

“Look at carefully where you stand in line because the person in the same place in the other line will be your first opponent.

Ellie counted her place, and she was the seventh in ten. She looked up at the other line to see who was the seventh in the first row.

Lucas was the sixth, that meant he got Rachel.

 _Liam_ was the seventh.

Ellie gulped.

Liam flashed a champion’s proud smile at Ellie as if he’d won already.

“If everyone’s got their pairs, _without cheating_ ,” he emphasised, “would everyone scatter around the room and join up.”

Ellie took a few short steps, sort of waiting for everyone to scatter and find their pairs and places before she went to pair up with Liam.

“Well, well, well,” he said when they walked up to each other. “Did I not predict that once I will give you a well-deserved beating?”

“No ... you didn’t.” Ellie pretended to think.

“Yes, I did!” His smile faded for a second as he meant what he said right now, but it returned as he continued, “I bet you won’t last ten seconds.”

“Liam, you’re not beating her up,” Bill said as he walked past them.

“Not yet,” Liam added quietly when Bill was out of earshot.

Ellie rolled her eyes and turned to Bill, who called for their attention. He was paired up with one of Lucas’s troop members as they were an odd number.

“Would everyone please adjust their positions so they can clearly see us.” Everyone shifted, but Liam and Ellie were in a place where their sight wasn’t blocked.

“Now, all you need to do is copy me as I walk you through the basics.

“But we’ve done that already!” someone shouted.

“ _You_ , maybe,” Bill started, “but it’d be wise to learn from your mates how to _keep your mouth shut_!”

Though Ellie got why Bill was like this, she was still surprised about his “sudden” behaviour. All their previous conversations replayed in Ellie’s head in that moment and compared it to this Bill she saw before her.

However, no one said a word after this as they all copied Bill when he walked everyone through the defensive movements. He positioned his partner – or told him how to stand – in a defensive position while he – without actually hurting his partner – delivered offensive hits and everyone copied.

“Now I want you to practice these five times before switching positions. One person being the defensive one while the other the offensive, then switch,” he said and started slowly walking around the pairs, while they were practising what he showed them.

Liam didn’t wait for Ellie to say anything before he started delivering the hits. Ellie, doing what Bill showed them, tried to block him.

“Liam!” Ellie cried out when he didn’t stop trying to land a blow. Her cry was lost in the chatter among the twenty-odd people in the room, and Bill was on the other side.

“I told you.” He finally stopped. “You wouldn’t last ten seconds.”

Anger was building up in Ellie, but not enough to take control. Not _yet_ , but if Liam continued like this, Ellie _might_ actually pick a fight.

“All right, fine. You try. Let’s see if you can land a blow.” Liam smiled smugly, thinking she won’t be able to.

Ellie replayed Bill’s movements in her head and tried to copy them, but of course, Liam blocked all of them. Ellie spotted Bill walking their way and stopped and looked up, hoping this would distract Liam enough for her to land a blow.

Liam must have been really daft because he fell for it, and as Bill looked up at them, Ellie landed a punch at Liam’s stomach.

 _“That would shut him up for a while,”_ she thought.

Gasping for air, Liam held his stomach as Bill approached.

“Liam,” he said it in a slightly disappointed way. Liam pointed at Ellie while trying to say something, and the smile from Ellie’s face couldn’t have been wiped off.

“What?” Ellie put a hand by her ear and leaned closer to Liam.

“Ellie, enough!” he said, but there was hardly any reprimanding in his tone. “You delivered a good punch, yes. A tactical one. But he was also defenceless. Which takes me to my second point,” he looked at Liam, who was still holding his stomach with one hand. “ _Why_ were you defenceless? _Why_ were you distracted? Didn’t I tell you, and didn’t Corporal Higgins tell you to never let your guard down, to always pay attention to your opponent?” Ellie couldn’t but feel like he was talking to her too, advising her to apply what he says.

Liam opened his mouth to say something, but instead, he just nodded.

“Go and sit down. You can join in in a few minutes.”

“But I’m fine!” Liam insisted.

“It wasn’t a request.”

Liam walked off, huffing. Bill waved to the person who he was paired up with to come over.

“Boiler room,” he whispered as he walked off casually, to watch the others. Ellie was about to say something back when the boy appeared.

“Sam,” he introduced himself.

“Ellie,” she said and tried not to glance either at Bill, Liam or Lucas for help with her new opponent.

As it turned out, Sam wasn’t as bad as Ellie thought it would be. He followed exactly what Bill said, and they switched when needed, even though he must have known this by now.

Bill upped the tactics each time, and each time he made them practice them. Liam joined back in during the second set of practices, not to Ellie, but as Bill’s pair.

“I see Liam doesn’t like you,” Sam said suddenly.

“Yeah. I don’t know why. I haven’t done anything to him.”

“He must feel threatened or challenged by you; even now that you’re in different troops.”

“Wait. You knew we were in the same troop?” Ellie frowned.

He shrugged. “He said a few words about everyone in his old troop.”

They continued following Bill’s instructions about offensive and defensive hits and tactics until lunchtime. “After lunch, come back here. We’re going to continue this but make it a bit different.”

There were some murmurs in the room as everyone displayed their opinions about the announcement. Sam nodded to Ellie as a goodbye and headed to catch up with his friends.

“Hey,” Layla and Amanda linked arms with Ellie. Dinah and Rachel behind them. “Let’s have a shower before lunch, huh?”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Amanda ran ahead, holding the door for the rest of the group.

Fifteen minutes later, some with damp hair, the girls were all walking down the corridor.

“So, tell us,” Amanda linked arms with Ellie again. “Who was that handsome boy you were eating breakfast with today and a few days ago?”

“Who, Lucas?” Ellie frowned, and Amanda looked back at the other girls.

“Lucas,” she said exaggeratingly emphasising his name, overplaying her swooned girl role.

“Cut it out,” Ellie pushed Amanda lightly. “He is a friend. He’s been by my side since ... Almost since the beginning.”

“So, is he like your boyfriend or what?” Layla came up next to her too, looking all hopeful. “Because if not, I’ll happily take him.”

Ellie laughed. “No, he is not my boyfriend– He is my friend.”

“Well, I for one, don’t believe in friendship between a boy and a girl,” Amanda started. “One always feels more than the other.”

“Or they like the opposite gender,” Rachel added from the back, and everyone looked at her. “What? We exist too.” She shrugged.

Everyone chuckled, even Rachel smiled too.

“So ...” Layla tried again.

“Feel free to ask him out,” Ellie chuckled again. “But I wouldn’t get my hopes up. I d–” Ellie looked down, smirking slightly, remembering the moment before they took the car and the first time they saw each other after they came here. Both times Lucas showed interest in her, and now, only _now_ , did she start piecing together the little, the tiny things that he did for her.

“You what?” Layla asked.

“I wouldn’t get my hopes up.” She repeated instead of voicing her real thoughts.

She put a hand on Ellie’s shoulder. “Aww, don’t worry.”

At lunch, Ellie didn’t eat much as she wasn’t feeling like eating anything from the menu, but she did get something that looked the best from the selection. She absent-mindedly listened to the other’s chat about Lucas at first, then about boys in general.

***

After lunch, they walked back to the gym. Bill was already there, as well as two thinner mattresses in the middle of the area.

Ellie had a bad feeling about this.

“All right people,” Bill clapped a few times and everyone, as they were, stopped and in a sort of half-circle, they stood around Bill. “Now I won’t pair you up, but you can pair yourselves as this exercise requires a level of trust on both parties.” He lifted his hands to signal that they can pair up.

Ellie looked around to find a pair, looking at the girls, but before she could ask one of them, someone tapped her shoulder.

 _Please don’t be Liam_ , she hoped as she turned around, and it wasn’t Liam. It was Lucas. She let her breath she was holding out and smiled.

He smiled. “Will you be my pair?”

Ellie looked at Layla behind her then back at Lucas, “I–”

“I think that was enough time for you to find a pair, if not then look beside you. The person next to you who hasn’t got a pair already is your new partner. Now,” he clapped his hands again. “who doesn’t have a pair, there should be one, ah, Sam, again, come here.” He waved him over.

“I’m sure this mat is already scaring a lot of you,” some people chuckled, “but I won’t hurt your troopmate,” Bill added quietly. “I will show a few throwing techniques that you might be able to practice afterwards.”

He exchanged a few words with Sam before Bill stood in front of the mat. He demonstrated a throw that meant Sam and Bill were facing each other, hands on each other’s shoulders. Bill turned around, pressed his behind against Sam’s hips, grabbed Sam’s arm and threw – more like lifted – Sam over his shoulder. He demonstrated it again before calling everyone to gather around and walking everyone through how he did it. Twice. The second time how to practice it on the ground.

While he was talking, since Ellie and Lucas were standing behind everyone while still seeing, Ellie leaned closer to Lucas and whispered,

“Boiler room. Three o’clock.”

“What?”

“Bill showed three fingers. You said it may mean ‘time.’ As in three at night,” Ellie explained.

“I don’t think it was ‘three.’” Lucas argued.

“Why?”

“He showed one on the one hand and two on the other. He could’ve just shown a ‘three.’” He first showed one finger on his left and two on his right, then showed three on the one hand as proof to what he was saying. “I think it means ‘twelve.’”

“As in ‘midnight?’”

“Yeah. He can’t exactly show twenty-four fingers, now, can he?” He laughed, and Ellie joined him. “And what’s with the boiler room?”

“He told me before lunch.”

“Everyone got it?” Bill asked and straightened up, looking around the room. “Excellent. I want the non-combat troop to practice it first.” All the pairs that had one of Ellie’s troopmates in it separated from the rest. While Ellie and her troopmates – and maybe their combat-trooped pairs – practised the throw, Bill showed the other half how to actually do it.

“Do you know where the boiler room is?” Ellie whispered as Lucas put his hands on her shoulders, ready to “throw” her over his shoulder.

“I do,” Lucas said and “threw” Ellie over her shoulder which meant when he bent her arm as if throwing her, she rolled on his back over to the other side, as Bill showed them to practice it.

Ellie said nothing as they swapped places.

“Why is your friend eyeing me?”

“Which one?”

“The redhead.”

“Oh, she fancies you.” Ellie shrugged.

“She does?”

“Oh, don’t be so shocked. You’re not too hard on the eye.” Ellie smiled but tried to hold it back.

Lucas opened his mouth to say something but closed it. He looked at Layla after he rolled on Ellie’s back to the other side, then looked at Ellie when he turned back to her.

“How do I tell her the bad news?”

“You walk up to her,” Ellie suggested, trying not to be fazed by what he said.

“Okay. Swap!” Bill shouted and clapped his hands together.

As they were walking towards him, Bill locked eyes with Ellie, and she nodded. When they gathered around Bill, Ellie spotted Lucas coming towards her behind everyone.

“Well?”

“Done.”

“And?”

He shrugged. “Eh, she okay-d it.”

They talked quickly while Bill was assisting the first pair. When it was their turn, Bill talked them – or Ellie – through again how it should be done correctly and that if everything is going right, even Ellie should be able to actually throw Lucas over her shoulder no matter his weight.

Lucas stood near the mat and held Ellie’s shoulders while she did the same. Lucas’s hands were inside, and he turned around, his behind against Ellie’s hips and pulling on her arm and she was flying for a second before she hit the mat.

She needed to take a moment. Lucas extended his hand towards her, with an apologetic smile on his face.

“I should’ve gone first,” Ellie said, holding her chest.

“Yes, Lucas, try not to hurt pretty girls next time,” one of his troopmates patted him on the shoulder as he passed him.

“You okay?” Bill asked.

“Yes. I just got the wind knocked out of me,” Ellie explained, and Bill nodded.

Ellie stood near the mat with Lucas in front of her. They held each other’s shoulders, Ellie’s hand on the inside. She turned around, her behind against Lucas’s hips and pulling on his arm while crouching, she threw him over her shoulder.

“Well done,” she heard Bill say as she helped Lucas up. He smiled and nodded to her too.

“Can’t wait to get out of here,” Lucas said as they walked over to the others who have already done it. “Sorry about it.”

“Never mind that. Instead, tell me how we’re going to get to the boiler room,” Ellie whispered, watching the others.

“I could meet you, half-way,” Lucas suggested.

“Where is half-way?”

Lucas thought before he answered. “The dining hall. No one is there after eight.”

“Cameras.” Ellie realised.

“Bill wouldn’t say to meet him there if it was a problem,” Lucas said. “I’m sure he got it covered.”

“I don’t like being this in the dark.” Ellie looked at Lucas.

“I don’t either, but this is what we got.”

“So, the dining hall ... when?”

“Say, a few minutes before midnight,” Lucas suggested, and Ellie nodded.

After they were done with the throws, Bill asked if they wanted a little match, selected pair against selected pair, or preferred to practice what they covered with their chosen pairs.

“A show of hands. Those who’d like the first option, put your hands up,” fifteen people put their hands up. “Selected pairing it is. Line up please.” He waited a moment before all twenty-five of them lined up. “Call out your number. One,” he pointed to the first person in line.

“One.”

“Two,” Bill pointed to the second person.

“Two.”

“Three,” the person said themselves, and the counting continued until they reached twenty-five. Bill stepped to the mat and pulled an envelope from under it.

“In here, I have numbers from one to twenty-five. I pull two, and the pair will face each other using _only_ what I showed you this morning. No fancy things, combat-troop,” he added. “And no revenge fighting.” Ellie had a feeling, Bill said that for a reason. “If your fight lasts too long, I will call it off. We only have two hours, and I’d like everyone to have a go.”

He reached into the envelope and pulled out a number. “Eight.”

Everyone looked to the start of the line, where a combat-troop member stepped forward.

Bill reached into the envelope again. “Twenty-three.”

It was Dinah.

They both stepped up to the middle of the room, a bit further from the mat.

“Begin.”

The guy hit first, but Dinah blocked and delivered a series of hits straight away, making the guy walk backwards. As good of a start as it was, their fight only lasted a few minutes, as Bill called an end to it when the guy delivered a hard hit on Dinah.

The next pairing was Layla and Lucas.

“Go easy on her,” Ellie whispered, smiling, but Lucas shook his head slowly, smiling.

Even though he said he won’t, Ellie thought he _did_ go easy on her. She wasn’t sure why, maybe from earlier when he kindly had to reject her, or just because she was a girl; but in the end, Bill stopped the fight when Layla was about to hit him in the throat.

“Fiery that one,” he whispered. “Redheads.” He muttered chuckling.

A few more pairs went down, including Liam and a girl from his troop. Their fight lasted the longest so far, but in the end, Liam won. Ellie thought while watching him that his fighting style was dirty. Liam wasn’t cheating somehow, but he wasn’t fighting clean either.

As there was only half-an-hour left, Ellie was yet to have a turn. This was partly frustrating her, partly making her relieved, but Bill did say he wanted everyone to have a turn. It would require some extreme amount of luck on Ellie’s part to be that twenty-fifth one that might not get a chance to fight.

Seven minutes left, and Ellie knew she was the only one who hasn’t had a turn yet. She had the feeling everyone knew.

“Well, this is the end of this session then.” Bill clasped his hands together. “You–”

“Ashton hasn’t had a go yet,” Liam shouted, interrupting Bill.

Bill looked at Ellie, then at Liam. “Are you volunteering?”

“I am,” Lucas interrupted Liam before he could have volunteered to beat Ellie senseless in his revenge fight.

Ellie gave him a stern look. “What are you doing?” She hissed.

“Saving you,” he hissed back and stepped out from the line. Bill motioned towards Lucas with his head, meaning Ellie to follow and reluctantly, she did.

“Night, if your fighting is anything like how you threw her over your shoulder, please make sure she doesn’t need to go to the infirmary,” Bill said in a slightly bored tone.

“Why do I get the feeling this isn’t the first time you were warned like that?” Ellie whispered.

Lucas looked aside. “Uhm–”

“Ready?” Bill shouted. “Begin.”

Ellie swung her fist at Lucas’s face, but he blocked. Then he swung his hand, and she blocked. It went on for a couple more times before Ellie landed a blow.

“You’re letting me win,” Ellie hissed between her teeth. Lucas subtly nodded. Ellie landed another blow to which Lucas actually took a step back.

“Come on, man! Can’t you land a fucking blow?” Liam shouted at Lucas.

Lucas turned to him. “I can. Come here, I’ll show you.”

“Lucas, focus,” Bill interrupted.

Lucas turned back to Ellie. “I hate him. I’ve only known him for a few days, but I hate him.”

“I spent like two weeks with him. How do you think _I_ feel?” Ellie asked back while blocking a blow, but Lucas made a diversion and hit her in the side. “Just beat me already,” she hissed. She saw the hesitation in his eyes, then the decision he made.

Needless to say, in a matter of ninety seconds, Ellie was on the floor, breathing hard and not from her effort ...

“Well done everyone, that’s it for today. Dismissed.” Bill looked at the two of them as Lucas helped Ellie up, but looked away before either of them could notice him looking.

“Let’s just promise,” Ellie took a breath, “never to pick a fight with each other. Deal?”

Lucas nodded. “Deal. I’m so sorry. I tried to make it as fast and as painless, but I didn’t want t– Ellie, I’m so sorry!”

“Don’t worry, just ... help me to my room, and you’re forgiven. Actually ... help me _out of here_ , and you’re forgiven.”

“Deal,” Lucas said again and took and held Ellie’s free hand.


	19. Bonus #2

They watched Ellie run away with her troopmate to her lesson, then a moment later, Bill turned to Lucas. “I know you’re Ellie’s friend, but how much can I trust you?”

Lucas crossed his arms. “You can.”

Sighing, Bill rolled his eyes but continued. “I can’t let Ellie know, but if I tell you, I’m hoping you can tell her, eventually.”

“Tell me what? Tell her what– Wait. What did you find?”

“That’s–” Bill sighed again before continuing. Lucas’s mistrust was getting on his nerves. “I found a map in one of the offices. It was a map of the Island, but under it was a bigger map. It contained the locations of the other camps.”

Lucas was interested now but kept quiet.

“Where did she come from? Which city? Do you know?”

Lucas frowned. “Why?”

“Because the camps are location-based. There is a camp down south, for all the southern regions. Then there is this,” he pointed to their feet, meaning the Island. “This is for everyone who lives in the West, and there is one on the east coast too,” he finished.

Lucas was quiet, processing everything he heard right now.

“That’s why I need to know where she came from.”

“She came from the south,” he looked up at Bill.

“Great, then her brother is in the southern camp.” He nodded, more to himself than to Lucas.

“How?”

Bill looked at Lucas, frowning. “‘How’ what?”

“How are we getting there?” Lucas corrected.

Bill looked aside, deep in his thoughts. “I don’t know yet.” He looked back at him, determination growing in his eyes. “But I will figure it out. Lucas, you may not believe me or trust me fully yet–”

“Or at all,” he cut in.

“Or at all,” Bill nodded, giving in. “But I’m a friend. I may be the captain’s son, but that’s on paper only, as I said before. If I wanted to undermine you guys, like he does, don’t you think I would have done it already? And then, why would I help you by telling you where her brother is?”

“To trick us,” Lucas answered the question Bill didn’t mean an answer for. “You could be playing a game with us, make us believe you and trust you, only to find out it was all a test, a trick.” He paused before continuing.

“Like ... explain this to me. A bit more than a year ago, I escaped from here with the help of my Lieutenant and a handful of people. Everyone who I escaped with – save for one – is back here, but I can’t see my Lieutenant. How is everyone back here, where they escaped from? Explain it to me so that I believe you that it wasn’t my Lieutenant who hunted us down.

“They all think we’re dumb enough here not to connect the dots, or not to connect them correctly, but I see through the smoke. I can see how they manipulate people into thinking those who are on the top are right, and their word is the law. I admit, they are doing it well, but there will always be people like me and Ellie who can see what they are doing and know it’s wrong and will want to stop them. We will never give in, no matter what!”

Bill kept quiet for a moment before answering. “I don’t know how. I didn’t know your Lieutenant, but you seem pretty convinced it was him.”

“Who else?” Lucas threw his hands in the air, then quieted down to calm down. “Why would those who wanted to get _out_ of here from the moment they stepped foot in here, want to come _back_? They _don’t_! So it couldn’t have been any us. You see, my point is that if I couldn’t trust the person who successfully helped me to escape, how can I trust _you_ , who also promises to help us escape?”

“I see your point, and given your instance, it does make sense to doubt me. I’m just hoping there will be something that will convince you that I am not the villain of this story.”

“I will be waiting for that moment. Until then,” Lucas took a step towards Bill, “expect me to question you and to keep Ellie away from you as much as I can. If you’re still willing to help us, you can, I’m not stopping you, I’m just not risking any of our lives so that I can find out I was right.” He stepped back. “I hate to say this, but I do not want to be right. I want to finally get out of here for real. I want to help Ellie with Jason and live out my life _far_ _away_ from people like you.”

“That’s a nice dream.” Bill cocked his head to the side. “Well, I hope we can trust each other sooner rather than later because who knows what mistrust and betrayal will cost that person.”

“I agree.” Lucas nodded back and took another step back. “I’ll head back to my quarter now. You know where to find us if you need to.”

Bill didn’t say anything, just nodded as Lucas left the corridor and headed to his quarters, the conversation circling in his head.


	20. SIXTEEN

After they were dismissed, Lucas helped Ellie back to her room, with her roommates leading the way.

“Thank you, Lucas. You can go now,” Ellie said, smiling.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Ellie smiled. “I’ve got the girls.”

Lucas saw them nod behind Ellie. “All right,” he took a step forward and leaned close to Ellie’s ear. For the four girls standing behind Ellie, it seemed as Lucas was kissing her on the cheek, but in reality, he whispered, “dining hall at twelve.”

Ellie smiled as an answer, then Lucas left. As she closed the door and turned around, all the four girls were eyeing her.

“What?”

“So, _that’s_ why you said not to get my hopes up,” Layla jumped off her bed and walked over to her. “He’s already _yours_!” she said, poking Ellie’s shoulder lightly. “Ahh, I feel so _embarrassed_ now!” She threw herself across Ellie’s bed, theatrically.

“Layla ... don’t– I– We’re not _together_ -together–” Ellie tried to explain.

“But he does like you,” Dinah cut in, and Rachel and Amanda were nodding in agreement. “It’s written _all over_ his face.” She elongated the words. “And don’t tell me you don’t like him, even a tiny bit.”

Ellie said nothing just looked at the floor.

“I– I need to take a shower,” she said and grabbed a change of clothes. When she turned around, Layla was standing at the door.

“Ellie, honestly ... You could’ve just told me that he had eyes on you. I wouldn’t have gotten mad. And I would’ve avoided a slight embarrassment,” she added.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t, Layla.” Ellie hugged her and the fact that Layla hugged her back warmed Ellie up from the inside.

“And anyway,” Rachel came up next to her with some clothes in her hand too. “What were you whispering about today?”

Ellie looked at the girls, all wanting an answer. “Okay. I’ll tell you. But this is some top-secret stuff,” she started. Everyone nodded. Ellie sighed and blurted it out. “We’re planning an escape.”

After a few seconds of the girls looking at her like she just grew another head, Dinah spoke up.

“Escaping? From _here_?” Dinah smiled, not believing her. “Okay.” She nodded and looked away.

 _“Good. If they don’t believe me, it’s for the better,”_ Ellie thought.

Ellie smiled and chuckled. “I mean, you’re right, but one can only hope.”

“Would you take me with you?” Amanda asked, seemingly in all seriousness. Her expression was disbelief as well, but a different kind than the others’.

Ellie thought of her answer well before saying it. “If I can, yes. If not, I’ll come back for you. All of you.”

“Well, I don’t know how anyone would get out of this place, but I sure do know that I want to get out of these sweaty clothes,” Layla added, smelling herself and gagging.

After the girls had a shower, they went to have dinner. Surprisingly, this was maybe the first time when Ellie didn’t look around, searching for anybody, but enjoyed her time with the girls instead.

She felt guilty for not telling them that it indeed wasn’t a joke, that she _is_ planning to escape, and tonight, in fact, but then she would’ve felt pressured to bring them with her. She didn’t know how many people Bill could break out, but she figured he only counted for Lucas and her.

Ellie knew she wouldn’t come back once she successfully escaped from here; she _couldn’t_ come back because if she did, the captain would _never_ let her out of his sight. He was so determined to have her here, to have Jason and her in his grasp, but why, Ellie didn’t know. _“_ _Not yet, anyway,”_ she thought. After they escape, this will be the next thing she will try to figure out.

As she wasn’t scanning the dining hall for either of her friends, she just followed the girls to an empty table. As Ellie sat down, a knot appeared in her stomach. She looked at the clock. It was only a few minutes past six. She still had six hours to kill before she needed to be back here.

Suddenly, everything that could go wrong played in her mind. What if the girls became suspicious, and started asking questions when she was about to leave? What if someone will see them on the cameras and comes to stop them? What if they come across someone who will start to have questions? What if the captain finds out? So many things could go wrong, and Ellie was just staring but not staring at her food while she was scaring herself into thinking everything that could go wrong, _will_ go wrong. It’s Murphy’s law–

“Ellie!” Someone next to her shook her hand.

Ellie shook her head to clear it and focused on the person next to her. “Sorry.”

“Where did you go?” Rachel chuckled and turned back to her food.

Ellie glanced at the clock. Ten past six. She looked back at her food and started eating it absentmindedly. Her evil thoughts still circled in her head, but she was paying attention to the girls’ chatter too.

Minutes before seven, they were told to leave, and so they took their long-ago-empty trays back and headed to their rooms.

Ellie looked at the clock in their room. Only five hours to go.

“Ellie, you’re really distracted,” Rachel spoke, and Ellie turned away from the clock. “You keep looking at the clock, and you’re slipping away. What’s on your mind?”

“I bet it’s _Lucas_ ,” Layla said, smiling widely, as she headed to wash her clothes. Realising she needed to do it too, Ellie grabbed her laundry. She headed after Layla, with Rachel, Amanda and Dinah in tow.

Rachel walked up to her. “So?”

“Sorry, Rachel. I’m not sure what’s going on. I guess I’m just tired.” lied Ellie. “My side hurts, and my feet and my legs hurt. The food wasn’t so good either,” she listed, all true, hoping this will make her drop the subject.

“Yeah, whatever was in that food is not sitting well in me either.” Rachel shuddered.

The girls spent their time washing and drying their clothes and chatting in the meanwhile. The other five girls came in too, but they didn’t stick around for long. Taking seats on the floor or on the counter, Ellie was successfully distracted from her troubles by the girls.

She even forgot to check the time, though Rachel did every now and then while trying to figure out what Ellie could have been waiting for. She was her usual self now, as she was talking to the girls, laughing and giggling while sitting on the counter – as if her previous worries were only temporary. _Maybe she truly was just hurting and tired ..._

“Guys, I think I’ll take a nap before ironing,” Ellie said, and right on cue, she yawned – unplanned.

Dinah nodded. “I think I’ll do the same.” She started getting up from the ground, and Ellie hopped off the counter. “Wake us up before twelve, will ya?” Dinah added, and since they spent almost three hours there, Ellie only had to wait two hours. She was glad Dinah said twelve because Ellie had a plan on how to get out without them questioning her.

***

“–lie. Ellie. Ellie!”

“I’m awake,” she sat up, rubbing her eyes.

“You told us to wake you up.”

Ellie’s eyes opened wide, and she looked at the clock. She had about ten minutes. She turned back to Amanda and smiled.

“Yes, thank you.” Standing up, she headed for the door to retrieve her clothes.

“We, uhm, I took your clothes out,” she said, pointing to the foot of her bed where a basket with clothes was.

The gears in Ellie’s head were turning, adjusting her plan accordingly. “Thank you,” she smiled. “I’ll get right on it; I just need to use the bathroom.”

Amanda nodded and turned back to her ironing board. Layla and Dinah were already sleeping, their clothes for tomorrow hanging on their wardrobe door already. Rachel wasn’t in the room.

“Where’s Rachel?”

“Bathroom as well,” Amanda said without looking back, folding her shirt.

Without a word but glancing back on the girls one last time, she opened the door and went out. She looked left where the bathroom was, but she didn’t see Rachel. Turning right, she ran down the corridor as quietly as she could.

As she was hurrying towards the dining hall, she saw Lucas walk from the other way. When they both walked up to the doors, before any of them could have said a word, a harsh sound cut the eerie silence of the corridors.

The fire alarms.

The two of them looked at each other, a few metres still remaining between them.

“A fire?” Ellie looked at the little alarms and lights on the walls, now flashing in colour along to the siren.

“No,” Lucas grabbed her hand and pulled her down the corridor where he came running from. “This is Bill.”

“What?” Ellie caught up to him, and he let her hand go.

“I kept thinking about it. ‘How could Bill pull off something like this? How could he manage to break us out without anyone noticing?’ Now the security would be higher because I managed to escape a bit more than a year ago,” Lucas said, breathing heavily from running so fast. He pulled Ellie behind him before he peeked around the corner. “Come on– And I thought,” he continued, “he would need to make a diversion.”

Ellie wasn’t looking where they were going, she was just following Lucas – which resulted in her almost tripping on several occasions from Lucas pulling her and her not matching his speed.

“In here.” Lucas gently pushed Ellie in a door that led to another, narrower corridor. He, himself looked back one more time, making sure no one followed. “Just follow the corridor.”

“Are you sure this leads to the boiler room?” She asked doubtingly.

“Positive. This is just another way. I came out this way when I was last in there.” Ellie frowned. “We were playing some stupid game. Anyway, we need to hurry!”

“Wait!” Someone called after them, and Ellie’s heart stopped. Turning around, she spotted the last person she ever thought of seeing here, standing at the door, closing it after themselves.

“Rachel?” Ellie asked breathlessly. Her heart was beating so fast, she was afraid she’d have a heart attack. All her thoughts were circling in her head, trying to figure out the “how” and “why” and “what.”

“I _knew_ you were up to something,” Rachel said as she caught up to them. Lucas didn’t want to waste any time, so he continued walking, and the girls followed. “I saw you turn down the corridor, so I followed you to find out why, but I thought you were just sneaking off with him. Then I heard the fire alarm and– You _are_ leaving, aren’t you?”

Lucas gave a disbelieving look to Ellie, practically asking her, “You told her?”

“Don’t look at me like that! I didn’t tell anyone! Not really.”

“‘Not really?’ El– Okay. Rachel, now you’re here, you need to come with us.” Lucas opened one of the two doors and pushed the girls in.

“Finally,” Bill’s disembodied voice boomed from somewhere, and a few seconds later he appeared. “Aaand you brought a guest. _Great_. Okay. Never mind. I have enough space. Your bags,” he pushed two backpacks into Ellie’s and Lucas’s hands. “If I’m counting it correctly, we only have minutes before they are finished with the evacuation and come right back. You three will be spotted missing, and they will come looking. By that time, we need to be as far away from here as we can be.”

While he was talking, he led the trio across the massive boiler room, and to a door on the other side. He fumbled with the keys for a second, then unlocked the door.

“Inside, quickly. I know it’s dark but follow the wall until the end.” Bill said and closed the door back, shutting all the light out.

“You bought our bags?” Ellie asked Bill while keeping a hand on the wall, following it.

“I came across them the other day when I was tasked with finding something of someone else’s. Anyway. A plan– _this_ plan started to form in my head after that, and I figured you might need them. _They_ don’t. And you should see the storage! Hundreds of bags and half of them don’t even have an owner anymore. They won’t really miss _two_.”

Ellie felt a slight breeze and tried to ignore a part of Bill’s sentence. She didn’t want to think about something like that right now.

“Ah, here we are,” Bill exclaimed and pushed forward, pressing Lucas to the wall. If it was intentional or not, Lucas didn’t know, but a few thoughts crossed his mind.

Light from Bill’s hands filled the area they were in which _stank_. It was a horrible smell, Rachel and Ellie even put their hands in front of their faces.

“Where _are_ we?” Rachel asked.

“This is the channel that sends all the sewage water out to sea,” Bill explained while handing a torch to Lucas too. And indeed, there were a few pipes, varied sizes, leading into this one, all carrying stinky, brownish coloured water.

“I have a boat that will take us from the north side of the Island to the mainland.” Bill turned to face them, but then he grabbed onto the railing next to him, torch in his mouth, and started descending the ladder. “Come on!” He called when he got down, and Ellie followed, Rachel after him, then Lucas closing the line.

When they all got down, standing on the metre-wide path next to a boat slightly rocking on the brown water, Bill turned to Ellie and asked, “Are we waiting for anyone else?”

“Ha-ha. Funny,” she said sarcastically. “But no.”

“Great. In you get.” He pointed to the dark green boat.

Lucas motioned ahead of Ellie. “Ladies first.”

“Oh, fuck you! Get in already!” Rachel cursed from behind Lucas.

“Calm down, Rachel!” Ellie said without looking back while she held Lucas’s hand and got into the boat. Lucas got in after her and helped Rachel in too. Lastly, Bill got in and untied the rope that prevented the boat from floating away from the path.

“Where did you get this boat from anyway?”

“Uhm,” he got the oars out and pushed the boat away from the side. “The less you know, the better? We still have another thing to accomplish after this,” Bill finished, and Ellie gulped, looking down.

“And that is?” Rachel asked.

“Rescuing Jason,” Bill finished, and Ellie looked at Lucas worried. _How_ are they going to do that?

Bill was rowing the boat out of the channel, but in the end, Ellie saw the faint outline of some vertical lines.

“Turn off the torch,” Bill said and turned his off and Lucas did too. “Everybody down and try to be as invisible and as quiet as you can.”

“That won’t be hard,” Lucas whispered, “given that we’re wearing camo.” Even though Ellie couldn’t really see him, she knew he was smiling widely at his own joke.

But nobody laughed. Either because it was a lame attempt at humour or because of the seriousness of the situation – or both.

“Oh, boy,” Rachel sighed, possibly at Lucas’s bad joke but they all crouched down by the little benches across the boat. Rachel was in the back while Lucas and Ellie tried to fit next to each other in the middle. Bill was still sitting in the front with his head down.

“There is a motor back here,” Rachel spoke and poked her head out. “Why aren’t we using that?”

“Because it’s loud!” Bill whisper-shouted back at her. “We’ll use it later.” Bill pulled the oars back on the boat and got his keys out again. “Not a word, and nobody move. If we’re lucky, we get away.”

“How did you get out before?” Ellie asked Lucas so quietly, she was afraid he didn’t hear her. Bill was turned around and opening the bars.

“By helicopter during the day. A few were taking off, and my Lieutenant had actually planned a transport. He _was_ transporting something, but we were on board too,” he explained.

There was a creaking metal sound, then the boat moved again. A few seconds later, whatever Bill opened closed again, softly, surprisingly given it was metal, and Bill was rowing again.

“How far do we need to get before we can use the motor?” Ellie asked Bill.

“An hour, but shush. I can still hear the alarms. They must be shutting it down any minute.”

Ellie listened carefully. She did hear a faint sound of a series of alarms, but they were fading away, then they stopped.

“There it is. They shut it down. A few minutes and they will start looking for you guys all over the base.”

“Will we make it out?” Rachel asked, her voice trembling, but she tried to hide it.

“We need to make it out enough for them not to see us from the island.”

Lucas sat up on the bench and extended his hand towards Bill. “Let me help you then. We’ll be a bit faster.”

Bill wanted to argue, but he must have seen some reason behind Lucas’s words and gave him an oar. Ellie kneeled down on the boat, put her elbow flat on the bench that Lucas was now sitting on, and put her head on her arm.

A few minutes later, Bill asked Lucas, “Have you told her yet?”

Ellie looked up. “Told me what?”

Lucas sighed. “Bill found out that the camps are location-based,” Lucas whispered. “Jason is in the southern camp.”

“Really–?” Ellie asked, but Rachel cut in,

“Who’s Jason?”

“My brother,” she turned towards her. “It’s because of him that I’m where I’m now. They took him, but I wanted him back. We– I didn’t really have a plan, and we jumped headfirst into all this.” Lucas snorted in agreement, and Ellie gave her a look. “We didn’t exactly know where he was taken, we figured we could find out at this base. I didn’t think it was _this_ bad, even though Lucas warned me well.”

“I did. But it doesn’t matter. We’re ou–”

“Don’t jinx it!” Ellie said a bit louder then covered her mouth and looked around. “Don’t jinx it,” she repeated whispering.

“Okay. I should’ve learnt this the first time– Anyway. We found out where Jason is, and we’re on our way,” Lucas finished.

“This– All this ... for your _brother_?” Rachel asked in a disbelieving tone.

“Yes,” Ellie said firmly. “You didn’t have to come. We could’ve sent you back without an explanation, but I trust you, and you seemed different from the others. I love my brother and would do _anything_ for him, to get him back.”

“Yeah. Don’t get me wrong, I’m just surprised.”

“Will you be silent now, please?” Bill hissed, frustrated. “I’m trying to listen for anything, and it’s hard enough with the water’s noise.”

Everyone quieted down. Ellie put her elbow back on the bench and put her head back on it. Rachel did the same, but she turned around to face the way where they came from. Lucas and Bill were rowing the boat forward, inch by inch. Ellie was listening to them, as well as trying not to fall over as the boat rocked on the water.

Not before long, Ellie’s eyes opened, and as she realised, she dozed off. Bill was standing and was talking to Rachel about the motor. They were at the back of the boat; Rachel sitting by it with Bill in front of her, sitting where Lucas sat. Ellie stayed where she was, and Lucas was sitting in the front of the boat now, rowing by himself.

“Wakey-wakey, the fun is about to start,” Lucas said to Ellie when he saw that she was awake.

Bill was still instructing Rachel, who – sitting on the bench and was reaching back to the motor – tried to work it out based on the instructions Bill gave her.

Bill had enough. “Okay. Stop. Let’s swap.”

Ellie pulled her arm back as Rachel plopped down on the bench she was leaning on, while Bill sat down where Rachel sat a second ago. They were visibly trying not to rock the boat as much. Still, even Lucas had to stop for a second for being afraid to topple the boat over if he continued rowing. Both girls were facing Bill and were watching him trying to start the motor.

“Okay. Got it,” Bill said, turning to Lucas as he drew the oars in, almost hitting Ellie. Bill started the motor, and it roared to life.

“How do you know where to go?” Rachel asked, turning to the front.

“I’ve got a compass.” Ellie saw him point to his chest, where something dangled. She only realised it now that there was a light coming from somewhere, then she spotted a torch on the floor of the boat, wedged between something.

“And what way do we need to go?” Rachel kept on asking.

“Southeast.”

“And–”

“Rachel, you can trust Bill,” Ellie cut in. “He saved my life. I trust him with it.” Lucas looked aside upon hearing this, remembering the day when they found out who he really was – but also remembering when Ellie told him about what Bill did for her when she got caught and out in the ice room.

No one said anything after that; the only noise was the motor and the water. Ellie turned around towards Lucas and smiled at him. Lucas reached out for Ellie’s hand, and she put hers in his, both of them smiling at each other.

Everything Ellie went through up until this moment was replaying in her mind, but there was only one thing on Lucas’s mind. He glanced at Ellie as she was looking ahead with unseeing eyes and smiled to himself.


	21. Bonus #3

To Bill, all three of them seemed to be asleep – leaning on each other or on the bench – but he was still up, navigating them through the black water. He glanced back and around every now and then, his eyes searching for any signs that they were being followed. They got out this far, but one can never be too cautious.

He turned back around and looked down to his compass. He adjusted the boat, so it was heading southeast again, when Lucas asked, “Where are we going?”

Bill didn’t reply instantly. “We’re going to end up near Livrol. We can’t dock in the city, so we’re leaving the boat by the river.”

“How far is that from the city?”

“Around 10 kilometres. Why?”

“Just asking.” He looked aside, then to Ellie.

“You do love her, don’t you?” Bill asked after a moment, still looking ahead and not at Lucas as he asked the question.

“What?” Lucas’s head shot up, but his face was unmasked even in the dark. The only light source was the moon and stars on the night sky; they turned off the torches just in case.

“I can see it in the way you’re looking at her,” Bill continued when Lucas said nothing, then he looked at the two of them. “Is that why you agreed to this _insanity_ to break into the Fortress?” There was some scolding in his voice, but mainly interest. “You said you got away from here a year ago. What else would make you wanna come back?” He asked when Lucas still didn’t say anything. But actually, Bill wasn’t really asking this from Lucas, more like putting the pieces together for himself.

Lucas still didn’t answer. He looked out to the water, aware of Bill’s gaze on him as well as Ellie sleeping peacefully by him, rocking along with the boat.

“I don’t think she knows,” Bill continued. “If _that’s_ what you’re afraid of.”

“No.” Lucas sighed. “I don’t think so either.” He paused, then looked up at Bill. “Will you help us? After.”

Bill didn’t answer right away again. “I have a plan to get you guys in.”

“Care to elaborate?”

Bill sighed and looked at Lucas. “I faked transfer papers for Jason. I can get you guys in, but we might get caught if they want to authorise them. I hope not,” he added quietly, so Lucas didn’t hear.

“And then?”

“If we get through smoothly, we’ll take Jason.”

“And go where?” Lucas asked back. Rachel stirred and mumbled something in her sleep but didn’t wake up, and Bill answered a few moments later.

“I don’t know yet,” Bill admitted quietly. Lucas scoffed. “I don’t see you coming up with any ideas,” Bill continued but swallowed the rest he wanted to say. Lucas kept quiet. “Another hour or so and we’re there,” Bill added silently, looking down at his compass and watch.

***

“Sir, we have completed the headcount,” the officer said as soon as he was granted entrance into the office.

“And?” The captain was impatient. This was not a planned fire drill, nor was it real. _Somebody_ has done this purposefully. What that purpose was, he still didn’t know, but it was only a matter of time before he found out.

“Five privates and two officers, a sergeant and a lieutenant are missing,” he reported holding the stack of papers in his hands against his chest.

“Five privates, two officers, a sergeant and a lieutenant?” the captain asked back.

“Yes, sir.”

“Are you sure they are fully missing? You haven’t made an error?”

“No, sir, I asked their roommates and others in their troop. They haven’t seen them since before the false fire drill.”

The captain nodded. “Who are they?”

“The Privates are Aji Ajan, Ellie Ashton, Rachel Barton, Vivian Langley, and Lucas Night. The offi–” The captain hit the desk with such force that it creaked. “Sir?”

“Who is the Sergeant and the Lieutenant?” he asked, ignoring the officer’s concern and his own pain in his fist.

“Sergeant Hastings and Lieutenant Langley.”

“Any relation to Private Langley?” the captain asked back.

“Yes, sir, Lieutenant Langley is Private Langley’s uncle.”

“And this ... Who was the one with the strange name?”

“Private Ajan, sir?”

“Yes. Him.”

“He has no connections to anyone here. He may be a friend of Private Langley’s,” the officer answered.

“Have they checked the cameras yet?” the captain stood up.

“Not yet, sir, but they have told me to tell you, they’re waiting on you.”

“What for? Those imbeciles don’t know how to watch the recordings back!?” he shouted but stepped around his desk and headed to the door. “That will be it. Make sure everyone else stays in their bed. And training will be extra supervised.”

***

“Stop. There. Who is that?” one of the men who were watching the screens for the past two hours said. The captain turned back to them and, coming to stand behind them, stared at the screen too. “Zoom in.”

They were looking at a person, alone in the corridor. After they waited for the zoomed-in image to clear, they could see that it was Sergeant Hastings.

“Start it again.”

Bill, on the recording, walked down the corridor confidently but stopped in a nook for a second, then stepped out and walked down the way he came from. The recording stopped again.

“Sergeant Hastings,” the captain said as if he were tasting the words. “All right. We got our culprit. Now find the other six.”

“Sir, Privates Ajan and Langley, along with Lieutenant Langley have been missing _before_ Privates Night, Ashton and Barton and Sergeant Hastings.”

The captain growled. “How long before?”

“Weeks,” the man said. “The two groups have no relation.”

“How did we not notice this!?” the captain shouted. No one answered. The captain pinched the bridge of his nose. “Find me the other _three_ then!” he shouted again, and everyone turned back to their stations. The captain stepped to the man he just spoke to. “Find me exactly when they went missing and where to or you _will_ hear the end of it.”

“Yes, sir.”

The captain stepped back behind the three men looking at the screens. “Find me Private Ashton’s quarters.”

“Yes, sir,” one said and a minute or two later a camera from an end-of-hall view was showing two doors directly at the front.

“What time is this right now?” the captain asked.

“2300, sir. An hour before the false fire alarm.”

They watched the screen in fast forward until someone came out of the room on the left.

“Private Barton,” one of the men confirmed.

“Where is she going? What is that door?” the captain asked.

“The bathroom.”

They continued watching until Ellie appeared.

“ _That’s_ Private Ashton,” they confirmed.

“Follow where she goes,” the captain barked.

“Right away, sir.” They did as he asked and switched between cameras as Ellie on the recording walked down the corridors until she stopped. “That’s their dining hall.”

“Hold on. Here is Private Night,” another said as he enlarged the picture on his screen. “Heading in the same direction.”

“So, they _were_ working together,” the captain confirmed for himself.

All of them watched as they looked up and around, and the captain glanced at the timestamp. 23:57:14. The time when the false fire alarm went off. The two of them on the recording talked for a few seconds then Lucas pulled Ellie after him. Without having to ask, the men sitting in front of the captain followed where they were going.

When they went in a door, and no one changed the picture, the captain asked where that led.

“The boiler room.”

“Is there a way out of there?” The three men looked at each other. “Answer me!”

“No, sir. Not that we know of.”

“Hold on,” one spoke up. “This is Private Barton. She followed them.”

“So, she wasn’t _part_ of their plan, but ended up escaping with them.” The captain was talking to himself. “You said there is no way out of there.”

“We don’t know of a way out from there, and there are no cameras installed in there, sir,” one, the braver one, said.

The captain turned around to his officer, the one who brought him the news, to begin with. “Get me a team of four. Get them to the boiler room and search it from top to bottom. I want them to look under every grain of dust and _FIND THEM_!”

The captain left after his officer and went back to his office. About an hour later, four men entered.

“Nothing!?” He asked back.

“They weren’t there, sir.”

“But we did find a door that we managed to open.”

“And?” He was getting impatient.

“It led to a sewage collection point that went out into the sea.”

The captain laid back in his chair. “So, you’re telling me they not only successfully caused a distraction but managed to escape by a smuggled-in boat that they smuggled out themselves with?”

After a second of hesitation, one said, “That’s what we figured, sir.”

The captain leaned forward again and entwined his hands. “Get me three helicopters. Two will head west, one will head east and land in Livrol. Hopefully, we’ll get ahead of them.”

“Yes, sir,” one said, and they all left the office.


	22. SEVENTEEN

“–ys. Guys! Wake up!” Lucas was shouting and shaking Ellie and Rachel. “Wake up!”

“I’m up, you idiot!” Rachel shouted and moved her arm away from Lucas.

“What’s happening?” Ellie asked as she was looking around. It was still dark; the sun hasn’t yet begun to rise.

“I heard something like a helicopter from afar. I thought I’ve seen it–” Bill cut himself off. None of them commented, they just sat quietly as he steered the boat closer to the land. “We have a few minutes until we reach the mainland.”

“What’s going to happen then? Where are we going?” Rachel asked, holding onto the side of the boat. Bill was going full speed.

“We’re stashing the boat by the river,” Lucas answered.

“What river?” Rachel asked again.

“A river near Livrol, I don’t know which, and I don’t care,” Lucas said, making a face at Rachel who quieted down after this.

“Lucas,” Ellie touched his arm, which he took it away quickly, out of reflex. Having realised what he did, he looked at Ellie.

“Sorry.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.” He looked ahead. He didn’t like lying to Ellie, but he felt sceptical about Bill’s plan. So many things could go wrong, but he dared not to say anything. Ellie has enough on her mind and conscience already.

But Ellie knew Lucas was lying; hiding something from her, but she didn’t press him. He always ended up telling her what he withheld, eventually, if he felt it was needed.

Lucas put his hand on Ellie’s arm as a reassurance, and Rachel made a face silently behind them.

They could see the shore now, the illuminated streets of a town.

“All right guy, we’re almost there–” His sentence came to an abrupt end as they all heard the noise coming from above them. “Get down.” He said and stopped the motor.

“Are you out of your mind? Start the motor up and let’s get the fuck out of here!” Rachel sat up.

“Get the fuck down, and I don’t want to hear your voice anymore!” Bill shouted back. Rachel got startled, as did everyone for they have not yet seen Bill lose his temper. He cleared his throat and calmed down. “If I have the motor running, they’re either going to see the water ripples or hear us. Our best chance is to wait until they’re gone far enough so we can start again.” He turned to all of them. “Unless you want to swim.” They all shook their heads, looking down. “Thought so.”

They waited in silence as the helicopter flew past them. It was an awkward few moments, but Bill started the motor up again, and they continued heading to the shore.

Bill only slowed down once they got real close to the shore and he and Lucas took the oars and guided the boat until it hit the beach.

“Out,” Bill said as he jumped out of the boat. “Out! Help me push the boat up the shore.” Lucas jumped out, followed by Rachel. Ellie grabbed the torch rolling on the bottom of the boat and followed them off the boat. She turned the torch on.

“No. Turn it off!”

“Why? This way, we can’t see where we’re going.”

“I guided you guys through the water for four hours without any light but what is.” He pointed to the sky.

Ellie turned the torch off and put it in the side pocket of her bag. She then took one side of the vessel and pushed it up the beach.

“Are we just going to leave it here?” Rachel asked.

“Yes. I have a man standing by who’s going to take care of it.” Bill grabbed his bag and put it on.

“And now what?” Lucas asked as they all put their bags on.

“Now,” Bill adjusted his bag, “we’re going to go into town and get a means of transport. Preferably a car.” He started walking. The other three, stunned, ran to catch up to him.

“We’re going to steal a car?” Rachel asked, Bill’s shouting clearly only lasting until now.

“I hope not, but by all means, you figure out a way if we have to.” Bill snapped back.

Ellie pulled Lucas a few steps back. “What’s going on with him?” she whispered to Lucas.

“I don’t really know. He didn’t say,” Lucas answered.

“Don’t wander away, we need to hurry!” He called back, and Ellie and Lucas caught up to Rachel and Bill.

“We’re here, Ellie.” Lucas reached for her hand.

“We are.” Ellie looked into his eyes. She thought she saw something in them for a second, but then he looked away.

They cut through a green area that must have been some sort of a park once. Though, upon going in deeper into the “park”, Ellie realised this was once a golf course. The broken flags and almost fully grown in holes were a dead giveaway. Though, by looking at the state of the park, she guessed it must have been abandoned only a few months, maximum a year ago.

A bit more than half-way through, they walked past a building that must have belonged to the golf course. A bit more walking later, they came out to a road with houses. Seeing more to the right than to the left, they headed right. Almost every second light was out for some reason, and it didn’t help that they were scattered thinly.

They passed an old, grown-in bus stop that had a bicycle left near it. A child’s bike. Lucas looked to what Ellie was looking at and squeezed her hand lightly.

They walked a long way until they reached the first car in sight. But that was parked in front of a house that seemed like it was still lived in. They continued walking until they reached a crossing.

“Whoa,” Lucas said as they stopped.

“Let’s go around it,” Bill suggested and went onto the grassy area in front of the nearest house for on the road were about a dozen cars, scattered; some bashed in, some still fine.

“What could have happened here?” Ellie asked.

“I don’t know,” said Rachel, the first time she spoke to her in what seemed like a long time. “It doesn’t look like an accident.”

“Maybe the road was blocked by someone,” Lucas suggested.

“And _why_ would that happen?” Rachel snapped back.

Lucas gave her a look then sighed. “Rachel, let me ask you, how exactly did you get to the Island?”

Instead of answering, she looked down.

“Let me guess you didn’t join voluntarily, did you?” Lucas continued.

“Guys keep it down. People still live here, and I don’t really want to be chased by them at four in the morning,” Bill told them.

Lucas continued quieter. “You were taken too, weren’t you? I assume they came to your house, given you have no idea what they are willing to do to take children. They grab them off their parents. They drag them out of their houses. Whoever stands in their way they shoot them off. They _don’t_ _care_. And _that’s_ how it could have happened. A White Man could’ve been standing in the middle of the road while these people tried to flee.”

“I didn’t see any bodies in the cars. Have you?” Rachel asked back.

“They must have ta–”

“Shush.” Bill held a hand up. “There is a light in that window.” He pointed slightly behind them. “Let’s just find a car and get out of here.” For a second, nobody did anything. “ _Scatter_ people and _find a car_!” he whisper-shouted. On that, everyone moved to a car near them. They tried the doors on all the good cars, checking if they were open.

“Found one.” Rachel’s voice echoed through the street.

“Quiet down, will you?” Bill snapped at her as they all gathered around Rachel and the car she found. “I told you there were people here still.”

“Okay. Sorry.”

Bill tried the car’s door, and it opened. He sat in the driver’s seat, and the others took this as a sign to get in too.

“Rachel. Get it already,” Lucas called out to her.

“No, guys. I’m not coming,” she said.

“Oh for–” Bill got out of the car. “Stay,” he said to Ellie and Lucas as he went around the car and to Rachel. “Why do you not want to come?”

“I thought about it, and I would be useless there. I can just stay here, maybe go to Livrol–” She looked down. “You guys don’t need me; you didn’t even have to get me out of there. It was me. I followed Ellie and insisted. But I’m thankful that you didn’t leave me there.”

“If you go to Livrol, they might find you,” Bill started. “The first chance you get, go north! This whole thing doesn’t touch the north; you’ll be safe there. If this is what you really want.”

Rachel nodded.

“Well … good luck then. You still have a couple of hours until sunrise, I suggest you start now,” Bill added.

“Thank you,” she looked around Bill to Ellie and Lucas in the back of the car, looking out, “for everything.” She took a few steps back, and Bill went around the car. Getting in, all of them buckled themselves in, and Bill started the car up with the key that was left in it. The road ahead and behind the car was blocked. Bill had to go onto the pavement and the greenery on the side to turn around. Ellie and Lucas watched Rachel until she was out of sight. Then they turned back, facing the front of the car, and Ellie felt a heaviness in her chest. It must have shown on her face too because Lucas took her hand again and kissed it.

“Don’t you worry. We’ll get your brother out.”

Bill looked at them in the mirror, silently.

“I can’t believe this is actually happening. I–” Ellie shook her head but was smiling. “Thank you, Lucas. For sticking with me. And you Bill, for risking everything.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it,” Bill said. “Just a regular weekday. Get a couple of soldiers out of the Fortress, check. Now yoga.”

All three of them laughed. Ellie, while Lucas still held her hand, put her head on his shoulder. Lucas and Bill’s gazes met in the mirror, but none of them said anything.

***

“Shouldn’t we change clothes or something?” Ellie asked when they were an hour in driving. They have watched the sun come up, in silence, and this was the first time any of them had spoken since they departed.

“How do you know where you need to go?” Lucas asked simultaneously with Ellie. “Sorry. You go Ellie.”

Ellie started repeating her question, but Bill cut her off. “I heard you. And no. I thought about it, but it would only take us a few hours to get to the camp, and in the meanwhile, I don’t plan on stopping. And we’d have to change back to camo anyway because we’re supposed to act like us.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know where I’m going, Lucas, road-wise, but I know the direction. Compass, remember.”

“I could check it on my phone.” Ellie offered and fished it out of her bag. “Or not,” she said when it didn’t turn on. “Dead.” Then Ellie repeated her question, “What do you mean we’re supposed to be ‘us’ when we get to the camp?”

“Bill faked transfer papers for Jason,” Lucas explained instead.

“So, we’re going in,” Ellie started, “and getting Jason out … just like that?” She snapped her fingers.

“That’s the plan.” Bill sighed. Everyone quieted down after this, no more to say.

Bill turned the radio on quietly then drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as they came to a red light.

“Aren’t you afraid that we might get caught?” Lucas asked Bill quietly.

“I am,” Bill said, not trying to sugar-coat it at all. “But I’m more afraid for Rachel. If I’m correct, they sent that chopper to Livrol, and if they catch her, if she is not on her guard when she is there, they will find her and take her back.”

“What I still don’t get is _why_ they are doing all this. Why this country only? Why not everywhere else?” Ellie asked, looking down at the end. “Or why at all.”

Bill held back what he wanted to say, but Lucas saw him from the mirror. “What are you not telling us, Bill? I can see you’re not telling us something.” Ellie looked up at this too.

“Bill? Do you know something? If yes, please tell us. Maybe that would lead me further in understanding _why_ the captain wanted Jason and me in one of those camps so much.”

“I don’t know about that,” Bill started, “but here is what I found out. We pissed off someone. A long time ago. And they threatened us back, but we didn’t know _when_ they would strike back. And they still haven’t.”

“So, you’re saying,” Lucas started before Ellie could, “that ten or so years ago we pissed someone off so much that the whole ass country had to change from a democratic to a military-led one?”

“Them politicians know about this. Though they didn’t know at first because whatever we did, whatever _whoever_ did, was within the military.”

“But anything the military does, the government knows,” Ellie commented. “Or don’t they?”

“They might not have known about whatever this was,” Bill said, stopping at another red light and turned back slightly. “Listen, whatever happened, I don’t want you caring about that, Ellie, and going on crazy missions to find out. We rescue your brother, I figure out something to do with you three afterwards, and we all go our separate ways. Understood?”

Ellie pressed her lips together. She had to find out why and how they were involved. What was this _craze_ the captain was on, and how is it connected to them?

“Ellie?” Bill said but the light turned green, and he had to turn back around.

“Ellie, promise me then,” Lucas held her hand. “I don’t know what made you chase this but–”

“They tortured him. They tortured Jason.” Ellie blurted out.

“What?” Bill looked back at them, and the car went slightly sideways as his hands steered it while he turned his head back. On the sound of a car horn, he looked ahead again and corrected the car.

“The captain, he–” Ellie’s voice broke. “He showed me a recording of Jason getting beaten up.”

“Are you sure it was legit?” Bill asked.

“Yes. It was Jason. I’m a hundred per cent.”

“ _Why_ did he do this?” Lucas asked.

“Because he wanted me to get in line. And this just proves it more that he _wanted_ me to be one of his minions. He _wanted_ me under him. But _why_ ; that is the million-dollar question.” She was surprised that she could say all this without her voice breaking like before.

The others didn’t say anything, but Bill held the wheel a bit stronger than before, and his lips were pressed together on his frustration. He stepped on the gas and picked up the pace.

“We’ll find out why. We’ll get Jason out, that’s for sure.” Lucas assured Ellie.

***

In a couple more hours they were near. They saw it in their surroundings. Rapidly fewer buildings and more flat areas and trees. Soon, they saw the smaller buildings closer to the gate and a big one behind them, behind what seemed like another of the same gate.

“All right, lovebirds, flutter apart and behave like you are soldiers.” As Bill said this, they moved apart, and Ellie moved from the middle seat to the seat behind the front seat. Neither of them looked at the other for Bill have called them out.

Ellie had to admit, she has been feeling a little more towards Lucas lately than she did before, and she was almost entirely sure he felt the same way about him. But she dared not say anything; especially not now.

Ellie saw the buildings more clearly as they approached it, and she tried to mask her concern and fear with a stern look. A soldier slowed them down as they were nearing the gate. They saw there was a booth right beside the gate, but they hadn’t reached this before the man held a hand out and stopped them. He came around to Bill’s side and knocked on the window.

“What’s your business here?” he asked.

“I have a transfer request for …” he pretended to forget the name and got the paper from the glove compartment. “... for a Jason Ashton.” He looked up to the soldier, waiting for confirmation. Ellie held her composure the best she could.

The soldier reached for the paper which Bill handed him, and after studying it for a while, and while handing it back, he said, “Go to the booth. They’ll decide.”

Bill nodded in thanks and was about to start when the soldier held up his hand. “Your name, position and base?”

“Sergeant Barnes. The Lonely Island camp,” Bill said and Ellie almost lost her focus. _He is pretending to be someone else?_

The soldier just nodded and waved us to go forward. Ellie saw him say something into his walkie-talkie, but he was no longer looking at them, so she relaxed. He didn’t suspect a thing.

When they arrived at the booth, the man asked, “State your business here.”

“I have transfer letters for a Jason Ashton.”

“Name?”

“Sergeant Allan Barnes.”

The man did something on the computer in front of him and checked something on the papers too before he said, “I don’t have you in the system for a transfer.”

Bill shifted in his seat. “Are you sure? My captain himself issued this.” The showed the man the paper. “I’m sure he is not incompetent enough to screw up, he is a captain for God’s sake!”

“What’s your captain’s name?”

“Roghier.”

“Ro-ghi-er,” the man muttered as he typed that in. “Yes. Got it. Go to building A,” he said as the gate was opening, “and there will be someone waiting to escort you.”

Bill nodded his head in thanks again.

“Does no one say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ in the military?” Ellie asked through her teeth.

“Clearly,” Lucas answered just as quietly. “‘Allan Barnes’?”

“Shush. Better than using my own name.”

“Then, who are we?” Ellie asked? “I cannot be ‘Private Ashton’ because they’ll know in an instant. Even if I’m not from _this_ camp.”

“You’ll be my silent trainees,” Bill said as he parked the car. “Emphasis on ‘silent’.”

They got out of the car and walked up to the man waiting for them at the front door of ‘Building A’ - as it said by the door, painted on hastily with brown spray paint. _Is this place going to be brown like the other was grey?_ Ellie measured up the white-washed building with no windows. For all she knew, this was the only entrance. She hoped they’re going to get out all right.

“Welcome, Sergeant.” They shook hands. “And these are?” The man referred to Ellie and Lucas.

“Trainees. Captain’s obsession with everyone having a pair. Now. Shall we complete the transfer, he doesn’t like to wait, and I have already gotten myself into a bit of traffic.”

“Yes. Follow me.” He nodded and opened the door with his keycard. Ellie looked at Lucas if he saw, and he nodded. As they were in, Ellie turned around and saw that there was one card reader on the inside too. _Just great. No other way out than with someone from here._

Bill turned around for a second and pointed at his eye. Lucas nodded and mouthed “look around” to Ellie. Ellie nodded, though she was already doing that. She pointed behind herself, to the card reader on the inside, and Lucas glanced back then nodded.

The man led them down multiple corridors and through many doors, all equipped with the same kind of card reader on both sides. Finally, he stopped at the door next to which there was a window with grey-ish glass.

“One way,” Lucas hissed quietly through his teeth when he saw the expression on Ellie’s face. Ellie made no move to react to this, and neither did Lucas do anything. They just stepped in front of the glass and looked in. The man was standing to the side, but still able to see in the gym. In there, Jason, along with about twenty other kids _,_ was training. On dummies, luckily, not on each other.

They were all dressed in the same white shirt and brown trousers with numbers on the side of their left leg. Ellie didn’t know what the numbers meant, some kids had the same number, but they varied between 009 and 163.

They seemed like only grasping at the essence of combat, as if they only started it now, whereas Jason has been here for about a month now. Not that Ellie minded, the less he had to go through, the better.

Up until now she only saw him from the back and from the side, but now she saw him from the front, and oh boy. Whenever that beating happened, they could’ve still seen the marks on his face, maybe from that beating Ellie witnessed or perhaps from a fresher one. All in all, Jason looked to be in bad shape.

“I know he is not in the best shape,” the man started, stepping to the door. “But he is more obedient than his face might suggest.” He opened the door and stepped in, leaving it slightly ajar. Ellie used this time to grab the wall and breath.

“Get it together, he is coming!” Bill hissed, and Ellie took a deep breath and returned to her original composure.

Ellie just realised now, as he saw Jason walk along with the man: what would happen if Jason saw her? He will surely recognise her but won’t know that she is playing a role. It would break her heart to continue playing her role, but she’d have to.

As they walked out, Ellie felt herself start sweating, and her heart was pounding. She saw Jason’s head pop out from the door, then it closed. Bill blocked Jason’s view of Ellie, but he still looked around him.

Realisation shone in his eyes as he saw his sister, and he squealed quietly and ran to Ellie and hugged her. Ellie, playing her role, pushed Jason away gently. Then Jason began to sign, and while Ellie understood everything, she looked at Bill, then at the soldier in pretend-confusion.

“Jason. Enough.” The man held his arms down and turned him away from Ellie. “I don’t know what has gotten into him. He is obedient otherwise.”

“He must have confused her with someone else,” Bill tried to ease the situation. Luckily, the man didn’t pay any attention to Ellie and Lucas.

“Must have,” now the man glanced at Ellie. “What’s your name, girl?”

Bill was about to answer something when Ellie opened her mouth. “Susca,” she said in a pretended heavy and foreign accent. “Alinter Susca.”

The man, convinced, nodded and turned and started leading them away. They went down the same path they came from, with the only difference that they turned right at one point instead of continuing straight. Ellie realised they must be going to Jason’s quarters. She had to admit, this place looked better than the Fortress. The walls were white, save for the occasional sprayed-on, brown writings on them, indicating clearly what was what.

They stopped in front of a door that had the same number painted on the side as Jason’s trousers did. He went in and the man after him. He left the door open, and Bill and the others waited outside, seeing inside.

There were seemingly ten beds here too, at least that’s how many Ellie saw without moving too much and too noticeably. Everything was brown and white – more brown than white. Layout-wise, it was similar to Ellie’s first room. Jason was behind the door, so they couldn’t see him, but they could see the man, and he could see them too.

I took Jason a few minutes to gather everything, but once he was done, he came out from behind the door with a camo backpack and clothes on. Ellie’s heart sank as she saw him dressed like she was. _He shouldn’t have to be. He shouldn’t have to be._ Her heart was still pounding, and now her palms were itching, and anger rose in her.

“We need to make a detour to the office to sign him out. And ready his documents for the transfer,” the man said, and Bill nodded. “Come, Jason.” He turned to him with an extended hand that he rested on his backpack while they walked in front of the three.

Ellie couldn’t believe how ignorant he was with Jason’s disability. She didn’t mean the man’s inability to sign, but the fact that he treated him as if he could hear whatever he was saying. He heard none of what anyone was saying to him! The only thing he would have heard is if that blasted air horn Ellie kept being woken up to, had gone off _right by_ his ear.

The man led them to the office and told them to wait. His mistake was to leave Jason outside too because as soon as the door closed behind the man, Ellie started signing to Jason.

“I’m happy to see you too, but I cannot reveal myself. I am playing a role here. The man doesn’t know who I am, and I want to keep it that way.”

Jason nodded. “Where are we going?”

“We’re getting you out. But until I say you can stop, you need to pretend like I’m not your sister, but another soldier. Can you do that?”

Jason nodded again, and Ellie straightened up and stepped back into her role.

A minute later, the man came out, asking for the transfer paper. Bill fished it out of his pocket, the paper now folded in two. The man disappeared again only to emerge a few minutes later with a stack of documents in a binder.

“That’s everything,” the man said, and Bill nodded. “Follow me, I’ll escort you out.” Again, he had Jason by his side at the front. As much it bothered Ellie, she couldn’t do anything about it. Not yet.

They reached the front door but before he opened it – his hand lingered around the card reader – he turned back to Bill.

“You know, something interesting popped up in the system when we signed Jason out.”

“What was it?”

“He has a sister. Ellie. It said she was in the camp you came from.”

“If she has,” Bill continued in his most convincing voice, “I haven’t come across her.”

“But the weirdest thing was a note saying not to have them together.”

Bill frowned. “Why would that be a side note?”

He shrugged so casually it surprised Ellie. “Beats me, I just wanted to let you know. To take it under consideration.”

“We will,” Bill assured him, and the man opened the door for us.

As casually as Ellie could, she walked to the car, following Bill, who was now holding Jason the same way the man did. She wanted to yank him away from Bill even and cuddle him up. Still, she restrained herself and fixated her eyes on the car and counting the approximate steps until they were in it.

Bill put Jason in the back seat and nodded to Lucas to sit at the front. That meant Ellie sat behind the driver’s seat, next to Jason. She tried not to jump in her excitement. She nodded to Bill in thanks, as they caught each other’s eyes. Ellie got in the car, followed by Bill. She restrained herself from doing anything but sit, at least until they were out of this place.

As Bill approached the gate, the man looked up and pressed the button that opened the gate. The man who greeted them first was still there where he was before, and now was eyeing them but not suspiciously – at least not seemingly.

As soon as they were out of sight, Ellie unbuckled herself and hugged Jason tightly. Jason took this as the sign to stop the pretend game and hugged Ellie back.

“I missed you so so so much.” Ellie signed, teary-eyed, as she let go of him.

“I missed you too!” Jason signed back. “I knew you were coming for me. I _knew_ it.”

Ellie ran her fingers through his hair.

“Where are we going now?” Jason asked.

“Bill. Take us to Shellton,” Ellie announced.

“Why Shellton?”

“Because we’re going home for a while.”

“Ellie, you can’t.” Lucas turned back in his seat.

“He is right. And buckle yourself back in this instant!” Ellie did as he told her, now sitting back in the middle.

“But I need to go home. I need to check in on the flat, and I need a change of clothes; Jason does too,” she argued. “I don’t want to stay there _forever_ , just for a couple of days. Until we figure out where to next.”

“Still too risky,” Bill shook his head, looking ahead.

“Bill, please!” Ellie plead. “Okay, you know what? I had a second reason. My aunt has this hidden space in her bedroom that I wanted to check for information. Maybe that place has something of my parents that would explain all this.” She threw her hands in the air, giving in.

Bill said nothing.

“Bill!” Ellie tried again. “I _have_ to know. Or at least rule it out.”

“Today.” He sighed. “We’ll move from there at nightfall, and I’m only agreeing because I’m tired and want some sleep. Now, I don’t want to hear another word.”

Ellie looked down and mouthed ‘thank you’, though she knew Bill didn’t hear it or see it. Then she turned to Jason and signed, “We’re going home for today. I need to find something.”

“What do you need to find?”

“Some papers. It’s a long story. Get some sleep.” She didn’t need to tell him twice. He laid his head on her lap and was asleep in a matter of minutes.


	23. Part II – Secret

_Is knowing better than not knowing?_


	24. EIGHTEEN

Ellie needed to take a moment to find the apartment keys, but when she did, and she opened the door, the first thing she noticed was the smell. Before she could turn to Lucas to tell him to help her open some windows, he was already stepping to the nearest room, which happened to be Ellie’s. 

Jason scurried into his room with sparkling eyes, and Bill found himself the sofa which he laid down on and closed his eyes without a word to any of them. They all knew what they had to do; no one had to tell them twice. 

Before Ellie could have said anything to Lucas, she noticed that he realised where he was. She stepped to the door and watched him look around. 

“So, this was your room, huh?” 

“Yep.” She paused, not knowing what else to say. In a second, the silence was getting awkward, so she added, “Come on, let’s look for those papers.” 

“Yeah, okay.” He walked out with her to Jane’s room. “Where are they anyway?” 

“Her bed lifts off, and she has under-bed storage,” Ellie said. 

Lucas made a face. “That’s not a very good hiding space.” 

Ellie scoffed. “Hah. Wait.” She lifted the bed up and shifted the suitcases under it to the side. 

“What–” Lucas started but stopped and watched Ellie as she lifted the loose corner of the cloth up that was the base of the under-bed storage. From there she fished out a white plastic folder. She then handed it to Lucas and closed the bed back down. “How did you find this?” 

“By playing hide and seek. I hid there.” She pointed behind her and took back the folder. “Jane banned us from playing hide and seek afterwards, but by that time, I have already found them. I didn’t know what it was, I just felt the bump, but since then I always wanted to have a look at them.” She shrugged and chuckled. “Blame it on my curiosity.” 

Ellie opened the folder above the bed and set the papers out onto it. There were some copies of important documents – passports, birth certificates, Jane’s marriage and divorce certificate ...

Ellie held up the paper. “I didn’t even know she was married.” 

Lucas looked at the sheet over her shoulder. “It says a date,” he pointed to it. “Maybe she was young?” He shrugged. 

Ellie did a quick calculation in her head to find out how old Jane was when these took place, and indeed, she was young. 

Ellie set the papers aside and continued looking. 

“Hey,” Lucas nudged her and showed her a bunch of papers. “These are letters. Emails, sorry, from your father to someone named ...” He looked back to the paper, but Ellie took it out of his hands and scanned it. 

“He seemed to have ... He seemed to be angry with my father. This person, on the other end. Look,” she pointed to one line, “that doesn’t sound too nice.” 

“Do you think there is any worth in Googling this person?” Lucas asked, getting his phone out. Ellie was looking at him strangely. “Ah, you’re right. There probably isn’t. I mean, if he is military, he is _nowhere_.” 

“No, Google it, for all it’s worth, I was ...” She set the papers down. “You have a _phone_?” 

Lucas scoffed. “Yeah. Who do you think I am? I’m around the same age as you, I can’t believe your _brother_ doesn’t have a phone.” He motioned out the door, to the other room. 

“He does.” Ellie shrugged and looked back at the emails and switched papers. “He just doesn’t use it,” she added. 

Lucas said nothing and went back to Googling the person on the other side of the emails. 

A few minutes later, when Ellie was on the last of the papers, Lucas sighed. “Nope,” he said and put his phone away. He picked up another paper from the ‘unread’ pile and continued helping Ellie. 

“Listen to this: ‘... but remember the last time you crossed me, James, I haven’t forgotten it! Be sure that I will get you back for that. But even now, I recognise that the information you found out you must keep, or they will come after you, maybe your family. I am not kidding.’ Wow. Okay.” Ellie swapped papers because this was the end of the email and read the next one. “Okay, this is dated a year later. “‘James, I have warned you to keep it to yourself. I buried the hatchet, that is why I’m warning you now: they are coming for them!’ That’s it. That’s the last one.” 

“Hold on, what’s the date on it?” Lucas grabbed the paper, but Ellie looked at it again. 

Ellie’s eyes opened wide as she recognised the date. “No!” 

Lucas looked up. “What?” 

“This is dated four days before they broke into our house and–” 

Lucas didn’t say anything for a moment, letting that sink in before he said, “So, this person _was_ right. Your father did something, told this secret information to someone when he wasn’t supposed to.” He looked back to the paper. “And you and your brother almost paid the price.” 

There was shuffling at the door that made Ellie jump into a defensive position. 

“I see you’re doing that too.” Jason signed. He was holding one of his plush toys in his hands. 

“I went through the same thing as you did. Come here.” Ellie opened her arms and embraced Jason. Stroking his head, she said, “I never thought I’d say this, but I’m so glad Jason’s deaf.” 

***

They didn’t find any evidence in that folder as to _what_ Ellie’s father knew and told someone. There was still some dry and long-lasting food in the cupboard that she made for the boys. Bill was still sleeping in the living room, and none of them disturbed him, but they weren’t taking measures to be silent. 

They were eating when Bill walked into the kitchen. 

“There is some left for you. Eat.” Ellie pointed to the pan on the hob. Without arguing with her, Bill took the plate from the counter and filled it with the food. They all ate in silence which Jason of all people picked up on being awkward and turned to Ellie. 

“Do we have to leave?” 

“What is he saying?” Bill cut in before Ellie could answer. 

“He asked if we have to leave.” 

“Tell him, yes,” Bill said without looking up. 

“I was going to,” Ellie said and nodded to Jason. “They know that we lived here, we can’t stay,” she added, signing. 

“But I like this house.” Jason looked down. 

Ellie lifted his chin. “You can take whatever you can fit in a backpack, okay? I’ll pack you some clothes, but fill your school bag with whatever you can carry, okay?” 

“What are you plotting?” Bill asked again. 

Ellie sighed and stroked Jason’s head. He continued to eat. “He didn’t want to leave his things and the place. Which is understandable given the circumstances he had to leave.”

“What did you tell him?” 

“That he can bring what he can carry.” Ellie shrugged. “It’s not a hindrance. If he can carry it, he will. I’ll pack his clothes and mine. I think I got some for you guys as well.” 

“How? No offence, but I don’t think your clothes or your aunt’s will fit us.” 

“No, but my aunt _somehow_ acquired my parent’s stuff.” 

Ellie stood up and washed her plate. Jason gave her his, too, and ran to his room. 

“I’ll get the clothes out,” Ellie said and left for Jane’s room. She opened the bed again and took the grey suitcase out. She struggled with it, and Lucas came just when she had gotten it out. 

“You’d think that time at the camp put some muscle on you.” 

Ellie straightened up and put her hands on her hips. “Be my guest then. Put it on the bed.” She nodded at it. Lucas, with a sly smile on his face, walked over to her. He crouched down to lift the suitcase, but he too found it heavier than it looked. However, Lucas _did_ manage to put it on the bed. 

“What _is_ in this?” 

“Everything.” Ellie opened it just when Bill walked in. “Choose whatever you’d like.” 

“Ellie ... Are you sure you’re okay with this?” Bill asked as he was stepping in. 

“Yeah.” She scoffed. “It’s not like he’s going to use it anymore. You might as well. At least this way it’s not just collecting dust,” she said and walked out and in her own room. 

She heard Bill ask what just happened, and Lucas told him that he’ll find out. Ellie got her backpack and emptied its contents out onto her bed. Suddenly, as she looked at all the stuff laid out, she got déjà vu. Sighing, Ellie started putting some things aside, things that she will no longer need like the ropes. She didn’t even remember why she thought she’d need that. Ellie shrugged, then got some new clothes out and a blanket. She put it on the bottom, then a few bottles of water against the back frame of the bag. Ellie went to the kitchen and collected all the food from the cupboard, and some other things they could do with since they likely weren’t coming back. She put the travel bottles she only used a couple of times on top of the food and the water bottles, and the first aid kit too. On top of these, she put her clothes, as much as she could fit. 

Then she stopped and thought of Jason’s clothes. Sighing, she went into his room. 

“Ellie.” He signed when she came in and called her over. “I can’t fill the bag. I don’t have enough.” 

She saw he was right. There were only two things in his bag, the picture of them and his plush toy. “Are you sure you don’t want to bring more?” 

“I thought I had more.” He looked back at his bag then shrugged. 

“Okay, then you can pack your clothes in your bag, hm?” He nodded, and Ellie went to choose him some clothes. “Change into these.” She threw some clothes on the bed and grabbing them, Jason ran to the bathroom. 

“Oi,” Ellie heard Lucas exclaim before he walked in. “Where is _he_ off to?” 

“To change,” Ellie said without looking up from the wardrobe. When she chose clothes that’ll fit the weather and Jason’s bag, she put them all together so when Jason selects one, he’ll have everything to wear for that day and put them in his bag. “Are you ready?” Ellie looked up to Lucas and held her breath in. He was wearing the exact same clothes he wore when they first met when he tried to steal from her. She smiled. “Do I need to check my bag again?”

“No.” Lucas laughed. “Thanks for the clothes.” 

“Do they fit you?” 

“Eeeh.” Lucas shrugged. “They fit Bill better. Though he is a bit more,” Lucas squared his shoulders to indicate that Bill was more muscular. 

Ellie chuckled. “Well, I guess–” Jason came back, having changed into his clothes. “I guess we’re ready too.” Ellie took his camo clothes. 

“No, we’re not,” Lucas corrected. “You haven’t changed yet.” 

Ellie looked down on herself. “Right.” She pointed towards her room, and Lucas stepped aside. 

When she was gone, Jason looked at Lucas and signed something to him. Since Lucas wasn’t looking at Jason’s lips to read what he was saying off it, he just shrugged and said, “I don’t understand you, mate.” Jason huffed and zipped his bag and got some paper and a pen. He wrote down something and handed it to Lucas. 

In childish handwriting, it said: _”I know you like her.”_

Lucas asked for the pen and wrote, _”I do, but I don’t think she likes me.”_

Jason read it and wrote, _”I think she does. She looks at you like she looks at me.”_

When he read his message, he nodded to Jason and patted him on the shoulder. Folding the paper, Lucas pocketed it. Smiling again at Jason, he went out of his room. 

***

When Ellie walked out of Jason’s room and back into hers, she needed to close her eyes for a second and lean against her closed door. _I can’t take– I can’t do this anymore. I need to tell him._

Ellie shook her head and set Jason’s camo clothes down, then chose her clothes and changed into them. Checked her bag and her room, in case there was something she wanted to take, and apart from her wristwatch – that she forgot last time there was nothing else. 

As she was opening her door, she was thinking of what would happen to the apartment. She saw Bill go into the living room, so she followed. Setting her bag by the door, she called for Bill. 

He turned around. “Yeah?” 

“We can’t just leave here. What will happen to this place?” 

“Your aunt’s bank account will soon run out of money, and then letters will come, then, in the end, the bank will take it and everything in it. So, I suggest you take everything valuable and personal, also those papers you found, because if you don’t, they’ll probably destroy it.” 

“I already took the papers, and there is nothing else I’d take. I have Jason, some clothes on my back and food. The only thing I need now is a plan as to where to go next.” 

“ _I_ have a plan.” 

Ellie didn’t say anything for a few seconds, waiting for him to continue. “Care to share?” 

“Not yet. So, you got everything?” 

“Yes.” 

“Where are the keys?” 

“In the tray.” Ellie pointed behind her to the hallway furniture. Bill stepped to it and grabbed the keys. “What are you going to do with them?” 

“Throw them somewhere far,” he said and walked back into the living room. “So, guys. I have a plan. We’re going far away, with any luck, within the week. I have a friend who can help us– Yes?” 

Jason put his hand up and now was signing to Ellie. “He is asking where ‘far away’?” 

“Out of the country ‘far away,’” Bill said hastily, and Ellie was so surprised she forgot to sign to Jason. He tugged on Ellie’s sleeve, and she told him what Bill said. 

“What do you mean, Bill?” Lucas asked. 

“I will explain, but now we have to get out of here. You never know who is after us.” He proceeded to take his bag, and everyone copied him.

“Oh, one more thing,” he turned to Ellie. “Your phone stays here.”

“But–”

Bill held up his index finger. “Don’t argue, just do it. Put it over there.” He nodded to the hallway furniture, but she looked at him sceptically.

Lucas cut in. “You said it yourself that no one calls you.”

Ellie gave him a piercing look to which Lucas held his hands up, retreating.

“It’s enough that I have a phone, so go on, do it.” Bill nodded towards the hallway furniture and with a huff, Ellie took her phone out and started to factory reset it so that if they do find it, they won’t be able to find anything out of it. It pained her to do this because she had so many memories on it.

Bill then turned to Lucas. “You too, lover boy.”

Lucas shrugged and said, “I don’t have a phone.” which Ellie knew to be a lie, but at this point, she just wanted to see where Lucas was going with this, so she kept her mouth shut.

Bill sighed. “Okay.”

Ellie finished and put her phone down. Since Bill had the keys, he closed the door after them. 

They practically sneaked out of the building and to the car, even though it was dark, and nobody would have seen them. Sure, there were streetlights, but most people aren’t spending their evening or night-time looking out to the streets for wandering souls. 

Bill sat in the driver’s seat and Lucas next to him. They were back to their previous seating plan. 

“Can you at least tell us where our next stop is?” Lucas asked. 

“A motel. Or one of them lorry-car-parks where we can stay for the night, even if in the car. Whichever I see first.” Bill shrugged. 

“Which way are we heading?” Ellie asked as she buckled herself in. 

Bill started the car. “Not west, because the southern camp is that way, not north because the Lonely Island camp is that way. Only two other ways are there to head to, I’m aiming for the middle of it.” 

“You’re heading for the channel.” Ellie deducted. Bill said nothing and that said something. Ellie hugged Jason closer to herself. “We probably can’t use our passports, you know that, right? Since we escaped, some of us twice, and me and Jason seem to be a priority,” Ellie looked at her brother, “they are likely to monitor all airports and even have control over the police maybe.” 

“I know.” Bill nodded. “We’re not going through the channel just yet. Probably not ever. I’m just taking us towards that direction.”

“And what about the passport problem?” Lucas asked. 

Bill stopped at a red light. “My friend, who can get us out, will provide you with new ones.” 

“What?” Ellie exclaimed. “When ... How did you ...”

“While I was ‘sleeping.’” He showed quote marks in the air. The light showed green. “He’ll send it to us in a couple of days. I’m heading south-west for tonight, but tomorrow we’ll head north. Well, along the seaside.” 

“Is there a meeting point?” Lucas asked. 

“Yes.” 

“Which _is_?” Lucas elongated his last word. 

“Classified.”


	25. NINETEEN

They were listening to the radio while they were on the way. Even though it was on and playing music, there was silence between the four of them.

A news-tune played on the radio, and Ellie looked away from the window and towards it.

_“And now the news brought to you by Becky Neil.”_

“Turn that up,” Lucas said, and Bill obeyed.

 _“... was a peace conference today between our Prime Minister and the minister of Baraogua, whose nation and people our previous Prime Minister allegedly threatened once.”_ Ellie and Lucas looked at each other. _“Today was all about making peace between the two countries and hoping that the minister of Baraogua will accept our deal. He did not. Sources say he stormed out of the room, shouting in his native language. What exactly, we don’t know for sure yet. What we do know is that there will be no peace this time, between the two nations ...”_ Bill shut the radio off.

“What does this mean?” Ellie asked, and for a moment, neither Lucas nor Bill answered. She was about to repeat the question when Bill sighed.

“It means we need to get ready.”

Ellie wanted to ask for what they needed to get ready. Still, she remembered what Lucas had said to her way back: _“Is there some sort of massive war coming, that they had to start preparing years beforehand?”_

A war.

A war is coming.

Ellie looked down to Jason, sleeping on her lap. When she looked up, Lucas’s met hers, and he mirrored her fearful expression. While Ellie was afraid for her brother, Lucas feared what all of them will have to go through if this war comes.

As Bill said they would, they stopped at a lorry-car-park. He put the car to park then turned around. “I’ll go and buy some things. Stay in the car.” He gave a stern look to the both of them, but Ellie wasn’t looking at any of them but Jason on her lap. She was stroking his hair, watching him sleep. “Ellie?”

She finally looked up. “Yes. Go.”

Nodding, Bill exited the car, and Lucas unbuckled himself. “Ellie?”

“Hm?”

“How are you?”

Ellie didn’t answer at first. When she did, she said, “I’m just peachy!”

Lucas picked up her sarcasm and turned around more so he could hold her hand. “Tell me.”

When she looked up, tears were sitting in her eyes. “A war? Really!? I can’t– I–” She stopped to take a breath. She was starting to panic. “I can’t Lucas.” She said in the end, breathlessly.

He let her hand go. “Come on.” Ellie gave him a confused look, and to clarify, he nodded to the side, meaning to step out of the car.

She shook her head wildly. “No. I’m not leaving him. Not again. If I have to, I’ll tie him to me. I won’t lose him again, Lucas!” She was slowly raising her voice in her panic, putting her arms around her brother.

“I’m not saying we go somewhere, just here, right by the car. You need some fresh air.” Ellie held his look, and after a few seconds, she gave in. She carefully unbuckled herself and placed Jason’s head on the seat and got out. She walked to the other side with her arms around her while looking at Jason through the glass, lying on the seat.

Lucas put his arms out, meaning to hug Ellie, which she let him do. She hugged him back and started crying silently.

“Your brother has more than you this time. He has two military-trained men looking after him along with you. If one person even breathes wrong, we’ll make sure they never breathe again, all right?” He drew away, his hands still on her shoulder, and looked in Ellie’s eyes.

Then they spoke at the same time.

“I have to tell you something–”

“There is something I wanted to–”

Lucas chuckled and looked down. “I think I know what this is about.”

“Good. Then it’s easier to tell you that we can’t.” Lucas’s head shot up and looked at her in confusion. Ellie shook her head. “This is not the right time to be involved with each other. I– I think it’s safe to say we both know what the other feels,” she took a breath, “that’s why this is harder but is the better choice.” They met each other’s eyes. “If this goes down well, and we get out before the war ... then we can revisit this.” Lucas looked down. “Until then, however, let’s just–”

“Be friends?”

“Be exactly what we were before.” Ellie smiled.

Lucas was looking at the ground again, while she was looking at him. Finally, he sighed and looked at her. There was pain in his eyes, but also understanding. He looked to Jason, and so did Ellie.

Nodding, Lucas accepted her terms. “All right.”

“Why do you two look so sour?” Bill’s voice made them jump.

“Nothing,” Lucas said and sat back into the car.

As Ellie made her way to the other side, Bill stood in front of the car’s door. “What did he do?”

“Nothing. Lucas did absolutely nothing.” She looked at his back through the window. “It was me.”

“Oh, he finally confessed?” Bill nodded in realisation.

“We sort of did,” she started. “But it’s not the right time.” She was not looking at Bill. He sighed but said nothing. “What?”

“Nothing. I ...” He shook his head. “This is none of my business. Here,” he handed her two ready-to-go sandwiches. “Eat.” They got back into the car. Jason was awake, and Ellie gave him one of the sandwiches which he munched on happily.

_Oh, how good it was to be young and oblivious to most things in the adult’s world …_

***

When Ellie woke up, the car was moving. She was so disoriented that she needed to take a moment to take in and remember everything.

“Morning, sleeping beauty!” Lucas grinned from next to her.

“Jason?” She looked at the front seat where he was copying Bill as he drove. Seeing that a huge weight rolled off her heart, and she sat back a bit more relaxed.

“As I said,” Lucas continued. “There are six eyes on him now. By the way, you must be hungry. You slept half the day. And you drooled.” He pointed to his mouth, and Ellie wiped hers but realised he was messing with her and hit him in the arm.

“Asshole.”

Smiling, he handed her a similar sandwich than what they ate the day before. Bill must have stopped at one point to buy this.

“Where are we going now?” she asked before she took a bite.

“To a place where we can stay for a couple nights. Until my guy provides us with your new passports,” Bill explained.

When they reached the place they would stay at, Bill asked for the rooms. When he was done, he handed Ellie a key.

“Hey, where is mine?” Lucas asked in a whiny voice.

“You’ll be in room 105. With me.” Bill tilted his head, smiling, knowing this is not what Lucas would’ve wanted.

“But–”

“Ah!” Bill held up his index finger. “ _I’m_ paying for it. _You_ shut up. Let’s go.” He led the way up to their rooms which were opposite each other. Lucas and Bill went into 105 while Ellie and Jason into 106. As soon as they entered, Jason ran to the window to look at the view. Ellie had to admit, it wasn’t too bad, it overlooked the town they were in. The roof of the ground floor was stretched out in front of them, and Ellie instantly remembered back to that night ten years ago. She drew the curtains in, much to Jason’s disappointment.

“We don’t want people looking in,” Ellie explained, and realised it was a weak argument, but Jason just sat down on one of the beds and turned the Tv on. Ellie knew this was just a distraction for him, he wasn’t actually interested in whatever was on. They had a Tv in their old apartment, but Jason never really watched it.

She watched him channel surf for a while, but soon he was bored of that, so he dramatically laid back on the bed, arms wide, clearly demonstrating how bored he was. Ellie grabbing the opportunity started to tickle him. She laughed, but not for long as Jason attacked back and started to tickle Ellie. A knock on the door stopped Ellie, and she stopped Jason while pointing to the door.

When she answered it, it was Lucas who stood in the corridor.

“Bill is insufferable,” he said, going into Ellie’s room without her saying anything.

“What do you mean? You’ve been in a room for all of five minutes.”

“Exactly! I want to swap.” He looked at her.

Ellie shook her head. “No. I’m not leaving Jason alone.”

“But he won’t be alone,” Lucas argued. “He’ll be with Bill, and you have to admit, he can protect him a bit better than you can. Physically at least–” Ellie stopped listening after he said “he’ll be with Bill,” but she only cut in now.

“You want– you want _Jason_ to bunk with _Bill_?”

Lucas frowned, not understanding her confusion. “Yeah?”

Ellie laughed and turned away from him. “Funny. Hah!” Then she looked Lucas dead in the eye and said, “No.”

“Come on, Ellie. I don’t want to sleep in one room with him.”

Ellie walked over to Lucas and helped him up. She dragged him to the door and said, “Until you can conjure up a real and valid reason, my answer is going to be ‘no.’” She opened the door and let Lucas out.

He gave her a fake piercing look and crossed his arms. “Fine.” Then turning around, he went back into his room.

“What was that about?” Jason had a perplexed expression on.

Ellie laughed. “He wanted to swap beds with you.”

“Why? Is there something wrong with his?”

Ellie chuckled then shook her head. “No. I don’t think there is. I think he is just sour because he didn’t get what he wanted.”

Jason frowned. “What did he want?”

Ellie thought for a second because even she didn’t know for sure what Lucas’s reason was behind not wanting to share a room with Bill. One of her theories was that he wanted to be close to her, but the other was that he wanted a room by himself. To save an awkward conversation with a ten-year-old, Ellie chose to tell Jason the latter.

“Because he wanted a room for himself. But that would’ve been more money.”

Accepting that as a good answer, he nodded and jumped on the bed.

“Don’t do that!” Ellie told her off. “You’re going to break your bed then you’ll have to sleep on the floor.”

Jason’s eyes grew big then he started shaking his head violently. Ellie, seeing Jason panic, forgot herself for a moment and called out to him while trying to grab his arms. “Jason. Jason! Calm down! Calm down.” She managed to embrace him, but then he began to sob. This broke Ellie’s heart, and her legs buckled, hearing him gasp for air and cry.

“Shhh. Shhh.” Ellie stroked his hair until he calmed down, still tightly hugging her, not letting go.

***

Lucas was just staring in front of him after Ellie told her what had happened. They were walking back to the motel from grabbing the order Lucas placed. He asked her to come with him to pick it up, and although it took some convincing, Bill was fine with watching Jason. Lucas’s reasoning was that he wanted to talk to her anyway.

“Why are you so quiet?” Ellie asked after she finished telling him what happened.

“So, you say he panicked after you told him he’s going to sleep on the floor?”

“If he continued jumping on the bed because he could break it, yes.” Ellie nodded. “I’m just trying to figure out why he panicked. What did I say?”

“I don’t think it’s what you said but rather what it reminded him of.”

Ellie frowned. “What do you mean?”

“At the beginning for me, the troop that I was in was a large one. One day, during mealtime, I remember a young girl crying at the table I was sitting at. I felt my heart break upon hearing her cry like that, so I went over to find out what happened,” Lucas started. He sighed, then continued. “She couldn’t have been older than fourteen, but she told me that she slept on the floor for the past few nights as a punishment and if she was caught sleeping in her bed, she got a beating.”

Ellie’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh, my God! Why?”

“I don’t know what she did to have this as a punishment, I never asked, but I assumed that she was being punished. When you told me Jason panicked, I thought maybe a similar reason could be behind it.”

After Lucas finished, they kept quiet.

“Do you think it’d be okay if I asked him?” Ellie asked after a while. “Or should I just leave it?”

Lucas shook his head. “I don’t know. It depends on him if he wants to tell you.”

Ellie nodded in response. “You wanted to tell me something?” She remembered.

“Ah,” he waved, “it’s not important right now.”

Ellie kept her eye on him for a few more seconds, hoping he’d continue, but when he didn’t, she turned back ahead.

All four of them sitting on the two beds in Bill’s and Lucas’s room were eating the food Ellie and Lucas brought back. Jason smiled when they entered the room, but Ellie couldn’t figure out if it was because of the food or because he was happy to see her sister. Probably the former …

***

When the day came to meet Bill’s guy, their time at the motel was up, so all of them popped back into the car and were on the way.

“We’ll need to ditch this car soon,” Lucas said.

Ellie was about to ask, ‘why’ when Bill agreed. “Yeah, I was thinking of renting one, but then we’d have to take that back.”

“We should just take another one,” Lucas replied.

“We can’t just take one!” Bill shot back. “These areas are still lived in. We can’t steal their cars.” Lucas sighed in response, realising Bill was right.

Ellie looked towards Jason, sitting next to her, behind Lucas, looking out of the window. Lucas caught her looking at him and said, “Really, Ellie. He is and will be okay.”

“I know but ... I can’t not protect him after everything. I turned away for _one second_ , and they took him!” She shook her head. “It won’t happen again.”

No one said anything after this, but upon hearing it, Bill glanced at Jason through the mirror.

“How far is this meeting point?” Ellie asked after a few minutes.

“Not far now.”

When they arrived, Bill was driving through a suburban area, still lived in, but Ellie guessed mostly by the elderly. She did see a few. Bill drove slowly, clearly looking for something. When he finally stopped the car, it was by a park. He parked the car on the side of the street then turned back to Lucas and Ellie.

Ellie shifted to the middle because Bill was about to say something. “You three will stay in the car while I go and deal with this, okay? Then we’ll go somewhere for tonight before planning your leave.” Both Lucas and Ellie just nodded, and when she turned back around, she cursed.

Jason was gone.

“For– See? This is what I’ve been telling you!” Ellie said in a desperate and borderline crying voice. As she exited the car, and she looked around, she spotted Jason on the playground in the park.

“Don’t you ever run away like that, understood?” Ellie signed after she went to him. Jason’s fearful expression gave Ellie enough reason to let his arm go and straighten up. “We don’t know who’s after us. We need to stay alert.”

Jason looked towards the playground then down to his feet and signed “sorry.”

Ellie crouched down and signed, “You need to ask before you leave, okay? So we know where you are.” Jason hugged her, and they walked back to the car hurriedly.

“Where is Bill?” Ellie asked as she and Jason sat back into the car.

“Went to meet with the guy. He said he’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Ellie–” she looked at him questioningly. “I _really_ hope you won’t have to but– there is something in your bag. For later.” Ellie reached for it, but Lucas stopped her. “No, not now.”

“Okay. What is it then?”

Lucas looked at Jason, then shook his head. “Right. Uh, it’s– it’s my gun.”

Ellie was too shocked to answer. She remembered back to that time when she spotted something in his bag that looked like a gun, but she wasn’t sure, and she never investigated.

“I, uh, had it with me before and I guess they didn’t go through my bag that properly. It’s a simple handgun, but since you’re probably better with it– I just– I just wanted you to have a means of extra protection.”

“Thank you, Lucas,” she finally said.

“Don’t mention it. I _really_ hope that you will never have to use it. Also–” Lucas cut himself off as if to have decided not to continue.

“Yes? Go on.”

“Just– Maybe don’t tell Bill?”

To Ellie, Lucas sounded a bit unsure about this.

“Why?”

“I don’t think he’d approve,” Lucas said.

“Approve of what?” asked Bill, who the two of them didn’t notice arriving back. “If you’re meant to say that you are finally together, don’t worry. I’m not against it.” While he said it, he was pointing at the two of them, and Jason was looking back and forth between Ellie and Lucas.

“What did he say? Why was he pointing?” he asked his sister.

“Don’t worry about it,” Ellie replied and looked at Lucas.

“Tha–” Lucas started to answer to Bill, but Ellie shook her head and signed the word “secret,” and after thinking for a second, Lucas realised what the sign meant and nodded. Meanwhile, Bill started the car and after all of them buckled themselves in, he drove away from the park.

“Where are we going now?” Ellie asked.

“To the nearest motel.”

As they reached the motel, Bill checked them in.

“But won’t they be able to follow us?” Ellie asked as they were entering the room. Jason jumped on the bed straight away, then went to the window to look out. Ellie followed him and looking around, she closed the curtains. Even though the window overlooked the car park, she’d rather be safe than sorry.

Meanwhile, Bill answered her question. “No. I paid with cash and used a different name. I know how not to be myself, don’t worry,” he said as he set his bag down. “Unless one of you acts up, we’ll be fine. _He_ knows how to behave like a child,” Bill pointed at Jason pressing the buttons on the remote, trying to work the Tv, “now it’s up to you two to act your age.” He crouched down and took something out of his bag. “These are your new passports.”

Ellie opened hers up. There was a picture of her that she didn’t know where Bill could’ve gotten from. It was an older picture that she used for her real passport. Her name was changed to “Ashlyn Elton,” and her date of birth was a week later than her real one. Looking, squinting at that, she looked at the Tv that has a news channel up at the moment, and Ellie checked the date.

“My birthday was yesterday,” she blurted out without realising it.

“Really?” Lucas asked, and Bill looked at her, confused.

“I mean, my real birthday,” she closed her new passport and put it in her bag.

“Well, that calls for a celebration!” Lucas said with a big smile on his face.

“I think we should still lay low,” Ellie said. “We don’t know if they’re after us or not.” Bill handed her Jason’s new passport too, and she opened it. His new name was Ryan Smith. “Hold on, we have different names,” Ellie commented on it with a frown.

“Yes, he said he decided this at the last minute, this way you cannot be tied to each other in any way.”

“But won’t this be to our disadvantage? There are perks to be the sibling of another,” she argued.

Bill stood up. “Not when both those siblings are on the run. If I could, I would’ve just changed your faces, but since I’m not a bloody magician, I changed your identities. Say ‘thank you’ and accept it.”

Ellie looked down and put his passport away too. “Thanks, Bill,” she looked up at him. “Really. I don’t know how to ever repay you for all that you have done and sacrificed for us.”

Bill was about to answer, but Lucas cut in. “Look at the little tech genius.” He pointed at Jason, who managed to get the subtitles up and was now watching some kids show.

“He got the subtitles up,” Ellie shook her head. “It’s not that hard.”

“I could never do it.” Lucas shrugged. “Though I don’t see why I would need to.” Lucas trailed off. 


	26. Bonus #4

“Good evening, Captain Roghier, sir,” the captain of the Southern camp greeted the captain on the screen in front of him.

_“I’m going to cut to the chase, Roy, I have three Privates and a Lieutenant missing.”_

“How did you manage that, Steven?” Roy asked back, laughing. He and Steven were old friends.

The captain wasn’t laughing. _“That’s beside the point, which is that I have reason to believe that they’re going to turn up at your camp.”_

“Why is that?” Roy asked back.

 _“Because Jason Ashton is at your camp, and her sister might come to get him!”_ Steven leaned closer to the camera, and his face filled the entire screen. This made Roy lean back a bit.

“Uhm, Steven ...,” Roy started, unsure, “Jason was transferred on _your_ request.”

The captain leaned forward again. _“WHAT? I didn’t request any transfer!_ Especially _not an Ashton’s.”_

Roy shook his head. “I don’t know what’s going on, but Jason’s not here. One of your men picked him up yesterday.”

 _“Who was this person who allegedly picked him up for transfer?”_ The captain asked.

“I don’t remember his name.”

Captain Roghier growled. _“Was there a blond girl with him? This girl?”_ The captain had a picture in his hand of a blond girl, seemingly in her twenties. Interestingly, she did have a resemblance to Jason Ashton.

“Yes, she looked like that,” Roy pointed to the screen, thinking.

 _“This is Ellie Ashton, Jason’s older sister,”_ Steven said. _“I have a task for you and your men. FIND HER! Find her, and you’ll find Jason – and most likely another Private, Lucas Night.”_ He paused then flashed a sinister half-smile. _“I’ll send some of my men. You may also approach the situation as you wish, and deal with the Privates as you see fit. But remember,”_ the captain pointed to the camera, _“two of them escaped my camp and broke one of_ your _Privates out. Until I come and get them, they’re yours.”_

The man disappeared from the screen, and Roy was left sitting stunned, feeling both confused and angry. Confused because of the load of information dumped on him and angry for getting played.

“Lieutenant!” he shouted.

“Yes, sir?”

“Tell the men in the security office to pull up every footage about yesterday when Ashton was taken. And get me the copy of that transfer paper!”

“Yes, sir!”

“They aren’t getting away this easily.” Roy looked ahead of him with piercing eyes.

***

“Captain,” Liam greeted him, arriving at his office after his Sergeant told him the captain called him.

“Blakely, I have a mission for you.” Captain Roghier stood up from his chair and walked in front of his desk. “This is unorthodox, but since you know both of them, you’re one of the people who would be perfect for this mission.”

Liam frowned. “Sir? I’m sorry, I’m not following.”

“I assume that, by now, you know that Privates Ashton and Night are missing,” he started.

“I noticed,” Liam grumbled. “So, what will this mission be?”

“Simple,” the captain grinned. “Retrieve them.”

Liam reflected the captain’s smile. So many things crossed his mind in that split second, but he voiced none, just said, “Will do sir.”

“Execute this well, and you will be rewarded.”

“When will I be leaving?” Liam asked, still planning the whole thing in his head.

“Now.”

“And where am I going?”

“You will be briefed on the way. You’re dismissed now. Your sergeant will take you to your transport.” The captain turned back around and sat back in his chair.

“Sir,” Liam grinned one last time before he left the room. _“Ashton will finally pay,”_ he thought.


	27. Part III – Survival

_Just when they thought they could get away from it._


	28. TWENTY

“Bill, just go!” Ellie practically pushed Bill out of the motel room. He told them he’ll go to the store that was just across the street but kept asking them if they will be all right and telling them to not do this and that.

“Bill,” Lucas came to the “rescue” too. “For real, man. We survived without you before, and we can sure as Hell survive for half-an-hour now. We can defend ourselves. Go! We’re hungry!”

“Well, I’m not sure about ‘surviving’ ... You did get caught. Every time.”

“Papapapapa– That’s beside the point!” Lucas raised his finger. “But we’re still hungry.”

“Fine,” he grumbled, and with one last look, he stepped out of the room and locked the door.

Ellie and Lucas shared a look that told each other the same thing that they were already thinking. Both of them had a bad gut feeling. Ellie glanced at Jason, watching the Tv – again. Having a serious lack of entertainment for a deaf ten-year-old, they just let him do whatever so that he’ll stay out of trouble.

“Do you have a bad feeling all of a sudden, too?” Ellie voiced her thoughts.

“Do you?” Lucas asked back, and Ellie nodded. “Do you still have the–?”

“I do. And no, neither of them knows,” Ellie said, meaning Bill and Jason.

“Good. You might wanna keep it close. If both us have the same bad feeling, something is very much not right.”

Lucas looked around in the small room. They were at a different place again. This time it was a motel, a cheap one in every way. Though they didn’t plan on sleeping there, none of them wanted to even stay there for longer than they had to.

It was a semi-detached house – well two next to each other – that was redesigned as a motel. It had four stories and extensions towards the back, with six en-suite rooms overall and a large dining room. There were two exits on the ground floor – if you didn’t count the fire door on the first floor, and if you didn’t count the windows.

Ellie went to their room’s window from which they just about saw the street – since it was positioned on the side of the house, not the front. She remained there, glued to the glass until Lucas dragged her back.

“Hey, I was on lookout.”

“Calm down, Ellie. It’s okay,” Lucas said, seeing how frightened she was. “The door is locked, and we have a gun. We’ll be fine.”

Ellie sighed and sat down next to Jason. He was watching a cartoon that had no dialogue. Ellie remembered it from when she was little, and she couldn’t believe they still aired it.

“You should’ve learned not to say things like that by now, Lucas,” she said, but she didn’t have her heart in telling him off. This feeling was really affecting her.

Everything was all right for the next two episodes of the cartoon, and Ellie seemingly started to calm down. Her nervousness was definitely easing, though the knot in her stomach was still sort of present.

Then, they heard rustling from the other side of the door, and both Lucas and Ellie got up from the bed in a second. Ellie’s right hand reached behind her back, to grasp the gun she hid earlier while holding onto Jason’s shoulder with her left. She didn’t want him to see the gun, and if everything went right, he wouldn’t have to.

There was no peephole on the door, nor a window on or near it. The only way to know who was behind it is to open it. Both of then knew that Bill had a key, so they waited to see if the person on the other side would open the door.

Seconds passed, and nothing happened, and though the rustling stopped, no sound came from outside now. Ellie was now holding the gun in her hand, safety off, ready to shoot.

Metallic clanking then rustling at the door again and it opened, Ellie’s hand in the air, aimed at the person. Jason was pushed behind her, picking up on Ellie’s fear, therefore clinging to her clothes like a child to her mother’s dress.

“Ho, ho, hey! Don’t shoot!” Bill dropped the bags and lifted his hands the second he saw Ellie.

Seeing and registering that it wasn’t an intruder, she lowered her hand. Her knees gave in, and she fell to the floor in relief.

“What’s going on?” Bill asked as he took the keys out of the door and pushed on it to close it.

All three of them were too preoccupied with what just happened to hear the footsteps that got louder before they reached their door. A foot appeared in the door, stopping it from closing.

In a second, Bill turned around upon hearing the noise when the foot met the door.

Lucas was grabbing Jason and pushing him on the floor by the bed as cover.

Ellie kneeled up and shot at the person.

All this happened in three seconds.

The head popped out, and the trio registered who it was, but that did not make the situation better.

“Liam?” Lucas looked at the boy standing at the door, with a tilted head.

He was wearing a slightly different camouflage uniform than they usually wore. He also seemed to be more prepared for the outside, having a bulletproof vest on and something in his pockets. Ellie didn’t see him have a gun which she thought to be a mistake, but she didn’t want to jump to conclusions.

“ _Surprise_ , Ashton,” he had a devious grin on his face.

Ellie fully stood up, her arms still extended, knowing she still had seven rounds. Which was more than enough for her to shoot precisely with at least half of that–

–had two more guys not shown up at the door.

That changed things.

Bill took his gun out too, standing in the same position as Ellie. Lucas was standing by the bed, literally over Jason, who – Ellie saw from the corner of her eyes without actually looking there – was curled up on the floor.

“Come now, no need for the hostility,” Liam waltzed in the room and stopped a metre away from Bill, who seemed just as poised to shoot as Ellie. Bill glanced at her, and ever so slightly nodded to the left, then to the right. Ellie half-knew what he meant, but after Bill directed his gun to one of the men outside, Ellie shot just about the same time as him, watching the two buffoons outside drop on the floor. Both shots were fatal.

Liam’s eyes widened as he saw this unfold and in the next second, he was in a staring contest with Bill and his gun.

“Ellie, go and take them out of here!” Bill said, but they were already on their way. Lucas grabbed Jason by the shoulder of his clothes and dragged him after his sister.

Stepping over the bodies outside, Ellie led them to the fire door on the first floor. That was the nearest exit since there was a metal staircase leading down the side of the house on the other side of that door.

Ellie went out first, motioning to them to stay while she looked if there was anyone.

“Uh, Ellie?” Lucas was not looking at her but behind them, because two other men were coming up upstairs. Three gunshots were heard, and Bill came out of the room running.

“GO ALREADY!” he shouted, and no one had to tell them twice. Ellie went down first, then Lucas holding Jason, so they’ll be faster, and Bill closed the line. Their car was near the motel they just had to reach it.

Before they could go around the corner, two other men popped up.

“Man, they’re multiplying like bunnies,” Lucas said, standing back.

“Can you shut up for a moment?” Ellie snapped back, shooting just a second before Bill, hitting one of the men in the shoulder, closer to his heart. Bill’s shot was a shot in the head, and Ellie blessed Lucas for having Jason not see this.

Her second shot didn’t miss.

“Come on,” Bill ran ahead, and Ellie grabbed Lucas’s arm to drag after her. Lucas was too stunned from Ellie snapping at her just now to say anything, so he just matched her speed the best he could with Jason on him.

Bill apparently ran ahead so much that by the time the trio reached the car, it was already ready to go, they just needed to get in.

As they did, Bill practically drove off before they could close the doors properly, let alone put their seatbelts on. All three of them sat in the back, Jason in the middle.

“Get Jason behind me,” Bill ordered from the driver’s seat, driving like crazy, with double the speed limit already. On the left, in a clearing, they saw a black helicopter – as well as two jeeps on the right by the trees near the house.

 _“We won’t be taking that this time,”_ Ellie thought and remembered back to about a month ago.

In a second, Jason was behind the driver’s seat. Ellie put her gun beside her and sighed.

“Here,” Lucas handed her something, and she had to take a second to process everything around her, as her adrenaline levels started to go down. Lucas was handing Ellie her bag. “Such luck that we put them by the bed, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to grab it.” She noticed Lucas adjusting his and that Jason had his own on him already. “I thought we’d need the passports at least.”

 _“Which were in our bags,”_ Ellie finished the sentence in her head. “Good thinking, Lucas,” Ellie took the bag and put it on. Only then did she notice that her hands were shaking heavily.

“Ellie, are you okay?” Lucas grabbed her hands, and even Jason looked her way.

“She’s fine,” Bill said from the front seat. “It’s just her adrenaline wearing off and ... she’s probably processing what just happened.”

While the first one might have been correct, she was not thinking about the second one before he mentioned it. Ellie looked behind them, then turned back ahead and stared at her hands. After a moment she looked at them, seeing blood on it – of course, she was hallucinating.

“Ellie ...” when Lucas said her name, she snapped out of it and back to reality, closing her hand, forming fists. Though her hands were still shaking, she started feeling a bit more confident.

“I’m fine, Lucas. Bill, where are we going?”

“For now? As far away from that place as possible. We need to lay very low for now. Lower than we were. We need to wait them out. They’ll likely leave today, so we could leave to the nearest airport soon.”

“But Bi–” Ellie started, but Lucas interrupted.

“What do you mean ‘wait them out?’ Haven’t you killed them all?”

Elie snapped her head towards him and opened her mouth to say something, but Bill cut in this time. “Liam’s still alive, I shot him in the chest, but he had the vest on.”

“You _purposefully_ left him alive when you were inches away from him; and with a gun!?” Ellie shouted.

“Yes!” Bill shouted back. 

_“Why?_ It ruined everything! He’ll go back and tell the captain that we escaped! Then he’ll send more and more people after us each time!” She was full-on screaming now, holding onto the other front seat, grabbing it hard. “You should’ve shot him in the head as well, instead!”

“He’d send people after us whether Liam was alive or dead. This way he’ll go back humiliated.”

“Humiliated, maybe, but also raged!” Ellie spat. “He was already pissed at me for ... for existing, imagine how bloodthirsty he’d be now!”

“‘Bloodthirsty,’” Lucas scoffed, half-smiling.

“What’s with you?” Ellie snapped at him. “Why are you in more of a jokey mood than ever _right now_!?”

Lucas didn’t say anything, and the smile disappeared from his face. Ellie was partly right, and he admitted it. His guess was that this was his defence mechanism: humour, in scary situations.

However, Ellie didn’t like this side of him.

“Also, how can we go to the airport?” Ellie continued. “Don’t you think that would be the first place the captain would send men to or tell the authorities to look out for us?”

Bill was getting agitated. Partly because Ellie was right and partly because he was starting to have enough of her shouting.

“All right, smarty-pants, sit your ass down and let me do the driving!” Bill shot back, and though this angered Ellie more, she bit her tongue and sat back down – with one last look behind them, seeing no jeeps or a helicopter.

In about an hour, they arrived at the campsite, but that wasn’t their destination. Even though it was December and no one in their right minds was camping at this time, they still went into the woods instead. It was fairly dense, but given it was winter, there were no leaves on the trees to hide them better. Still, with all of them wearing various shades and colours of dark clothes, it wasn’t hard for them to hide – also the setting sun helped in this.

The fact that they were hiding meant that they couldn’t light a fire, even though it was cold. At least this time, Ellie and Lucas had acceptable winder clothing – still, the same ones they bought in Hayick – and Jason had his own clothes from home.

They each had blankets; Jason shared with Ellie. It didn’t take him long to fall asleep leaning onto Ellie, even in the cold, but she had a much harder time even closing her eyes. Even hours after they finally made camp – all of them looked for a group or larger trees to lean against – she was still wide awake and looking around in the dark with searching eyes.

“Ellie,” Bill said quietly from her left that made her jump a little for she was so in her own world. Lucas was sleeping in front of her, leaning against a group of thinner trees. She heard Bill shuffle closer. “You need to sleep.”

For a moment, Ellie said nothing, then, “I can’t.”

After a moment, he said, “I know.” His voice was filled with understanding.

Ellie looked at her brother, sleeping against her shoulder. “I didn’t even think about it,” she started, and Bill listened silently knowing what was coming. “I just ... _did it_. I wasn’t exactly thinking about Jason at the moment ... but I was?” she said unsurely. Ellie looked up at Bill, just about making his eyes out in the dark. For a minute neither of them said anything, then Ellie broke the silence. “What will happen now?”

“With the plan ... or with you?” Bill asked back, feeling like she meant both.

“Both, but ...” She looked away. “But with me. I don’t know what came over me. It was scary if I’m being honest.”

Bill paused for a moment. “That entirely depends on you. Maybe nothing will happen, or ... maybe this will stay with you for the rest of your life.”

She snapped her head back to face him after he said this. “What do you mean?”

“I assume you’ve heard of PTSD?” he started. His voice was calm and collected the entire time he spoke to her. Ellie noticed it, and its effects on her, but paid no real attention to it.

“Yes, but ...” Ellie started saying something, but her thoughts were racing so fast, she lost her train of thought.

“Listen, what you did today, you’ve never done before, and ... well, I think it did have an effect on you.” He paused for a heartbeat before continuing. “My first time was not nearly as brutal and stressful as this must have been for you, but as I said, it all depends on how you process it ... but,” he put a hand on her shoulder, which made her jump slightly again. Because of this, Bill removed his hand right away. “Try not to think about that now. I know it’s hard, but we need you tomorrow. You brother needs you tomorrow.”

“Why, what happens tomorrow?” All sorts of thoughts circled around in Ellie’s head.

Bill chuckled. At that moment, the sound sounded so foreign and distant to Ellie. “We’re on the run, remember?”

“Right. Right,” Ellie said quieter each time.

Neither of them said anything now, and silence settled among them – but it wasn’t awkward. Somehow it was just what Ellie needed, though sleep still came to her only after a good while.

_“Liam?”_

_“Surprise, Ashton,” he had a devious grin on his face._

_Ellie fully stood up, her arms still extended, knowing she still had seven rounds. Which was more than enough for her to shoot precisely with at least half of that–_

_–had two more guys not shown up at the door._

_That changed things._

_“Come now, no need for the hostility,” Liam waltzed in the room and stopped a metre away from Bill, who seemed just as poised to shoot as Ellie. Bill glanced at her, and ever so slightly nodded to the left, then to the right. Ellie half-knew what he meant, but after Bill directed his gun to one of the men outside, Ellie shot just about the same time as him, watching the two buffoons outside drop on the floor. Both shots were fatal._

_Both shots were fatal._

_“Ellie, go and take them out of here!”_

_Stepping over the bodies outside, Ellie led them to the fire door on the first floor._

_Two other men were coming up upstairs._

_Three gunshots were heard._

_Before they could go around the corner, two other men popped up._

_Ellie shot, hitting one of the men in the shoulder, closer to his heart. Bill’s shot was a shot in the head._

_Her second shot didn’t miss._

_Bang._

She jolted awake, kicking the blanket off her, and kneeling up, ready to–

It was still dark. Almost dawn.

Lucas was still sleeping in front of her under the group of thin trees; Jason stirred beside her and Bill ...

She turned her head to the left and saw Bill watching her. He stayed up to keep watch over them – mainly Ellie.

With a racing heart, slightly embarrassed, she sat back down and collected her blanket, covering them both again.

“Ellie–” Bill started.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” She drew the blanket up to her neck and turned away from Bill so that he can’t see her face as she closed her eyes, shaking, trying to clear the dream from her head.

Bill sighed knowingly. He kind of expected this to happen. To him, Ellie didn’t seem like a stone-hearted girl who could just move on from shooting two people. He turned his head towards her wanting to go over and say something, but he knew that wasn’t the best thing to do right now.

Shifting in his sitting position, he resumed keeping watch and hoped she will fall asleep.

The second time Ellie woke up was because something was bugging her. Something small and whining, that seemed to be all around her. When she opened her eyes and finally got rid of the fly circling around her – and around the plate by her feet – she took in her surroundings.

The sun was up and shining bright, it must’ve been past ten. She saw two bags at the two trees where Bill and Lucas slept but not them. Realisation hitting her, she looked around for Jason.

He wasn’t there.

Neither was his bag.

Ellie was confused. How can her brother and his bag not be here, but Lucas’s and Bills yes, even if they are not here? And if they aren’t here, where are they?

Leaving everything of hers where it was, she stood and started walking around, calling out for the boys. If they’re together, even if only one of them was with Jason, they should hear her.

With a racing heart, almost panicking, she felt like she was going in circles. At one point, she had to stop at a tree because she was panting so heavily as if she’s run a marathon. And it didn’t seem to stop, she didn’t seem to be able to control it. Her thoughts were racing just as fast as her heart, and her legs gave out, and she kneeled on the ground.

“Luc–” she tried shouting again, but she was so out of breath, she couldn’t.

When she tried to stand again, gaining support from that tree she was next to, something touched her shoulder.

In a second, her gun was out, pointing it at eye level towards ... towards whatever touched her.

Turned out, it was Lucas.

With Bill and Jason behind him, looking ever so surprised at her reaction.

“Wha– You–” she started, but in her stunned and panicked state, she couldn’t form a coherent sentence. Though her gun was still aimed at Lucas’s head – with him holding his arms up in defence, hoping that it’ll do something.

“Ellie,” Bill stepped away from Jason and stepped in-between Lucas and Ellie. “Lower your hand,” he gently put his hands on hers and lowered them slowly as he spoke. Ellie, in her state, let him. However, she didn’t notice Bill taking her gun from her.

“What– Where have you gone!?” She asked, angrier than she intended.

“Nature called,” Lucas shrugged.

“And left _me_ alone?” Ellie frowned.

“We were only like ten metres away.” When he said this, Ellie looked around, not recognising where they were. “We heard you calling,” Lucas continued, “so we figured you woke up, but we didn’t think you’d be ...” he searched for the right words, and Ellie realised he looked for “panicking.”

She looked aside. “Sorry.”

“Lucas, take Jason back to camp,” Bill started, and Ellie snapped her head up at him. “Ellie, come with me.” Without waiting for a reply, he half turned her around and gently nudged her forward.

“No,” Ellie whispered, but Bill didn’t hear. Lucas didn’t look at them and was talking to Jason; both of them smiled. _“Why was he talking to Jason?”_ Ellie thought, frowning.

When she turned back ahead, accepting the stroll with Bill, she expected him to say something. When he didn’t, not even minutes after, Ellie suddenly stopped. This caught his attention, of course, and turned towards her with a curious look.

“Look, just spit it out,” Ellie started. “We don’t have time for this.”

Bill exhaled audibly and stepped back to Ellie. “I don’t want you to ignore what happened. I don’t want you to bottle it up because it’ll eat you from the inside. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, I’m not making you, but–”

“But you _want_ me to talk about it,” Ellie said, borderline rolling her eyes. Bill didn’t answer, but that was enough for her to know what he was thinking.

Ellie closed her eyes for a second, then sighed. She collected all the thoughts in her head about yesterday and sorted through them, then closed her eyes again.

“You were right,” she started, and though she opened her eyes, she didn’t look at Bill. “Although something else drove me yesterday, and I would never have thought ...” she stopped to search for words. Bill listened silently. “I never imagined it being like this. It haunts me.” She looked up finally, teary-eyed. “I didn’t want to admit it. I wanted to deal with it because–” her voice broke.

“... because you thought you were strong enough,” Bill finished for her.

Ellie buried her head in her hands. The sudden touch as Bill put his hands on her arms to draw her in for a hug felt so foreign to her at that moment.

“You _are_ strong, but not strong and stone-hearted enough to ignore the fact that you killed two people. I should hope so, at least,” he continued. “Ellie, you are strong in your own ways, but there are things that are above us. What you did yesterday was necessary for us to get away otherwise we would’ve been hauled back to the camp and back to square one, and probably never getting out of it.” He paused. “You are brave, Ellie. Reckless sometimes but brave, and we need that.” He stepped away, still keeping his hands on her upper arms as support.

Ellie wasn’t looking up, but she removed her hands from her face. Her palms were all wet from her tears. She didn’t feel like she had the strength to look up at Bill, but she found his words to be kind.

“What comes next?” She asked, meaning the plan this time.

“We have to seriously lay low if we don’t want to be found. We need to ditch all traceable electronics that we might still have. I’ll figure out a plan,” Bill said, his tone had changed from the calm one a minute ago.

Ellie nodded, wiped the tears off her face, and both of them headed back to their makeshift camp.


	29. TWENTY-ONE

Later that day, after they finished lunch, they planned to move inwards, into the thicker part of the trees to avoid being spotted from all sides. Even though they knew there was a road running by the woods, if they couldn’t see it, no one could see them from it. Same – similar – with the helicopter.

They seemed to have enough food, and even if not, this was a forest. Something must grow in it. At least this is how Lucas thought about the situation.

_Lucas._

Ellie remembered how snappy she was with him the past days when they did get the chance to exchange words, and she was yet to apologise for it!

She looked behind her, as he was walking at the end of the line – Bill leading, then Jason, then Ellie. He noticed her and flashed a smile. Ellie returned it and slowed down to let him catch up.

“Listen, Lucas,” she started and was about to continue, having it all planned out in her head when Lucas interrupted.

“O-oh.”

Ellie snapped her head towards him, then to Jason, then back at Lucas. “What?”

“This sounds like a serious talk. Are you dumping me?”

“What!? We’re not– No, I’m not _dumping_ you!” She said, utterly confused.

“Oh. Then what did you want to say?”

Ellie just looked at him, gaping, hen shook her head and said what she planned. “I wanted to apologise.”

“For what?”

“For yesterday?” Ellie looked down.

“Uhmmm ...”

“For being all snappy and everything. You didn’t deserve it.”

“Oh, please!” Lucas said, smiling. “Ellie, really? You’ve been all mopey about _this_?”

“Well, not entirely–”

“Because you don’t need to worry about it.” He took her hand with both of his and looked at her. “Really. It was nothing.”

Ellie smiled, a series of responses flying about her mind, but she ended up saying none of them.

“So, about the fact that you thought I was dumping you ...” Ellie started.

“Oh, hehe. That, uh, was a joke?” Lucas said – asked – unsurely.

Ellie didn’t exactly know what to say to that. In her mind, they weren’t together – not romantically anyway –, but she didn’t know how exactly he was thinking of their relationship. It did feel like a tad bit more than a simple friendship ...

***

They didn’t walk that long before they found a place they can camp at. Jason – having nothing to – went with Bill to look for wood for a small fire. It was getting cold.

Using this opportunity, Lucas drew Ellie aside to ask her about their plan from before.

“What?”

“You know when you found those emails and such in your apartment?” Ellie nodded. “You have it, right?”

Ellie nodded again then her eyes lit up in realisation. “Oh, the plan that we– But how are we going to find anything out about my dad and his dealings? His office was in Don, but that was _ten_ years ago! I have only been in Don a handful of times, who knows how everything is looking now, let alone if his office is still there _and_ by some luck his ex-colleagues.”

Lucas took a second to process all this. “But that plan is still on, right? I mean, it would mean you finding out what the captain – and possibly _all_ the captains – have against you Ashtons. It must be something serious.”

“I don’t know, Lucas ...” Ellie looked aside. “We know it has something to do with information– but we’re not even in the right position to go around asking questions about a decade-old thing! Who knows what we’ll stir up!”

“Exactly!” Lucas shot back enthusiastically. “We _don’t_ know. We just need to get rid of Bill somehow – since he’d never let us go off, searching for answers!”

“You got that right,” Bill stood a few metres away from them, crossed-armed, looking very angry. Jason was coming up behind him, with a few thin twigs in his hand. He showed it to Bill happily, as if he had caught a big fish just now, but when Jason saw him looking at his sister angrily, he lowered his hand, dropping the twigs, and looked at each of them confused.

“What’s going on? Why is he angry?” he asked Ellie.

“I’ll tell you later,” she answered back, though she knew she might not.

“Listen, Bill–” Lucas started, but pointing his index finger at the two of them was enough to shut them up.

“I don’t want to hear a word from you! You want to go off on your little quest, looking for yet _another reason_ to send people after us, then be my guest! I won’t stop you,” he said, his tone a deeply disappointed one. He picked up the small branches that he collected and waved Jason after him. With a concerned expression, he picked up his twigs and followed Bill to the middle of their camp, to build a fire.

“Well, I did _not_ plan that,” Lucas commented, but only received a piercing look from Ellie for that.

“Listen, I want to find out the ‘why,’ but at the right time,” she said quieter.

“Ellie, there is no right time!” Lucas shot back, pointing at her with his hands. “We have two options: be on the run from the captain and his minions, or be captured and sent back to our camps – and remember, there are more than two camps, so they could easily separate us as well.”

“Oh, come on!” Ellie rolled her eyes at this unlikely event, but ... she admitted, Lucas was right. Those seemed to be their only options right now. “Then ...” she started. “Then, we wait. To be honest, it’s not the most important thing right now. It’s still on my mind because it bugs me and because I don’t want the captain to think he’s winning just because he may know this secret, but”–she looked aside to Jason and Bill–“we have more important things to worry about right now.” She looked back at Lucas. “And besides, the sender’s email address was on the paper, so I can always just email them once we get to a safe...er place.” She forced a smile on her face, and Lucas copied it. Both of them felt the same thing, and with a heavy heart, they went and joined the other two.

***

“Ellie,” Lucas called for her attention the next time before they were about to leave.

Ellie saw that he had his phone in his hands and rushed over. “Bill told us to leave all electronics behind. I told you that you need to scrap that or they can find us!”

“Yeah, yeah, but look. There is an old airport nearby!” He zoomed in on his screen, and he was right.

“We have to tell Bill!” Ellie said, now whispering.

Lucas sighed, knowing that this was the right decision, but also knowing that this will mean he’ll have to leave his phone and face Bill for lying in the first place about not having one.

“Bill?” Ellie shouted ahead. After he stopped and turned around, Ellie and Lucas caught up. Ellie saw Bill’s eyes dart down to Lucas’s hands then back, noticing the phone – and not being particularly happy about it.

“I assume there will be an explanation?” he started. They were already in his crosshairs, this just added to that, but Ellie hoped what they found – what Lucas found – will make things right.

“Yes. Lucas found an old airport nearby,” Ellie started.

Bill raised a brow. “And?”

“Aaand we could go there and see if it’s still operational,” Lucas finished.

“Maybe we could hire someone to take us out of here,” Ellie suggested.

“Let me see.” Bill extended a hand toward Lucas’s phone, and he gave it to him. Bill tapped on the phone a bit and looked at it and the nearby things, trying to ignore the blue pulsing dot that marked where they were – Lucas’s location was on. “To take the most optional route, we’d have to go back the way we came, cross this abandoned ... whatever this once was,” he lowered the phone so that the others could see a place with swirling roads, and they looked at each other, trying to figure out what it could’ve been. “Then cross the highway and walk up to the airport, preferable hidden.”

“We could do it at night,” Ellie suggested.

Bill nodded and pocketed the phone after he tapped some more on it.

“Hey!” Lucas cried out but was silenced by Bill’s piercing look. “Okay!” He put his hands up defensively and began to walk back the way we came – with Jason in tow.

Ellie turned to Bill as they followed the boys. “So, does this mean that we’ll do it?”

“I’ll admit, it’s worth a try, even if I think it’ll be long abandoned.”

“In that case, can’t you call your friend to come, fly over and pick us up?”

“No,” Bill shook his head, with no other explanation.

When they reached that place that they couldn’t figure out was what once, they camped down near the border of the treeline. They decided to nap until dark when it will be harder to spot them crossing.

Ellie did doze off, and it was Bill yet again who stayed up to watch over them and when it was time, to wake them up.

They all gathered at the edge, and with Bill’s leading, they crossed what looked like a car park. The bushes ahead of them – between them and the highway – were not as thick as they thought, and they could easily walk through. They walked down the highway to the spot where there were no bushes, crossed over to the other side and crossed the slightly thicker bushes. There was a path after this, which they took north, to reach the airport. In about five minutes, they were there.

Bill went ahead to check the area, and then he waved them over – marking that the coast is clear. The once grassy field stretched yellow-ish brown and dry ahead of them in the dark. There was a hangar on the left, with broken windows and a patchy roof. Inside wasn’t better, broken windowed and broken-winged planes sat in there, as well as outside on the field.

“Abandoned,” Bill said quietly, and the hope Ellie had about this place fluttered away.

“Sorry we wasted time with this,” Ellie said quietly, hugging Jason closer to herself.

Bill said nothing in response just waved for them to stay here while he went further out into the field, clearly seeing something the rest didn’t.

“What’s he doing?” Lucas asked Ellie.

“I don’t know. Maybe he saw something?” Ellie shrugged and looked up at the night sky. “I don’t like being this out in the open.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Lucas said equally as quietly.

“Guys!” Bills whisper-shout was heard. “Come here.”

The trio hurried over and saw what Bill did minutes ago. A car. A black car that was in good shape because it was parked under a plane – as if once someone wanted to leave by plane like the group planned, but their plan, too, failed. The only problem was the broken wing on top of the car that they would need to remove somehow. They tried lifting it but couldn’t move it. It was still half attached to the body of the plane.

“We could just drive off from under it,” Lucas suggested, shrugging. “The tip of the wing would just fall to the ground which will support it.”

“Yes, but we can’t access the driver’s seat,” Ellie replied.

“If the three of us lift it enough, Jason could open the door enough to crawl in and start the car,” Lucas continued.

“You want a ten-year-old to drive a car? His feet don’t even reach the pedals!” Ellie argued.

“She’s right, but your idea isn’t half-bad,” Bill chimed in. “Ellie will do it.”

“I’ll–” Ellie started, baffled, but then just threw her hands in the air. “Yeah. Why not. Let the other non-driver drive the car.”

“As long as your feet reach the pedals, you should be fine.” Lucas smiled. “It’s just a straight drive. You won’t hit anything.”

“Okay. How do I start it?”

Just press the button by the wheel. You know, like the, uh, the other car you drove. You know?”

Ellie looked at him as if he was crazy, but then remembered the military car they sto– borrowed. Ellie nodded in response and readied herself at the door after throwing her bag down. Bill and Lucas put their hands on the wing to lift it, and even Jason tried, though they knew he wasn’t going to be much help.

Ellie smiled at the sight of him, helping the big boys, then nodded to the other two that she’s ready. Bill counted down quickly, they started to lift it, and Ellie slipped in the car. There was a _thunk_ as they let go of the wing.

Since she was already sitting in the driver’s seat, she prepared herself to drive. With her finger on the button, she looked at Lucas outside. He nodded, and Ellie pressed the button.

By a miracle, it started up upon the second press. On the digital, LED screen Ellie saw that the car had little fuel left, but they’ll worry about that later. Right now, she had to put her foot on the gas and go. She checked the gear, it was in the right one and with her hands on the wheel, she stepped on the gas.

The engine roared, and there was a screeching sound as the car moved out from under the plane’s wing, then a _thud_ as the wing landed on the ground, that supporting it instead of the car. There was also a visible dent on the top of the car, but that was the least of their worries.

Leaving the engine running, she opened the door and got out. She swapped places with Bill, took her bag from Lucas and the three of them sat in the back.

As Bill drove out of the field and onto the road southbound, they came across a gas station and filled the tank. Then he drove west until he found a safer place for them to stop and sleep.

While the rest of them slept, Bill took Lucas’s phone out of his pocket and got out of the car to make a call.


End file.
